There’s a weird phase in any debt payoff journey that doesn’t get talked about enough—the middle. Not the beginning, where you feel fired up and ready to change your life. Not the end, where you’re about to cross the finish line with a zero balance and a dramatic before-and-after story. I’m talking about the middle stretch. The months (or years) where the excitement has faded, the progress feels slow, and the reality of what you’re doing starts to sink in.
That’s where I was about a year into my plan.
By then, I’d made real progress. I had paid off two credit cards, started a small emergency fund, and gotten serious about budgeting. But I was still deep in it—still saying no to things I wanted, still throwing chunks of my paycheck at debt instead of savings, still living with that constant whisper in my mind: you’re not done yet.
The beginning of my journey had a kind of energy to it. I was motivated by shame and fear and the thrill of taking control. Every payment felt like a victory. I was learning new habits, and those early wins kept me going.
But once the obvious changes were made—once I’d cut the subscriptions, cooked more meals at home, and canceled all impulse spending—the process got… quiet. Repetitive. Even boring. And that’s when it got hard in a different way.
There was one night I remember clearly. I was sitting on the floor with a glass of wine and my spreadsheet open, trying to update my progress. I had made a $300 payment on my biggest card that month, and it had barely moved the needle. The interest alone was eating up half of what I was sending. It felt endless. Like I was trying to empty the ocean with a teaspoon. I remember thinking, Why am I even doing this? What if I never get out?
The truth is, it’s easy to stay motivated at the beginning, when your numbers are going down fast. But in the middle, you need a different kind of fuel—patience, self-trust, and a reason that’s bigger than the balance itself. You need to know why this matters to you even when it doesn’t feel exciting anymore.
For me, I had to reconnect with that reason over and over. I kept a sticky note on my bathroom mirror that said: You’re building peace, not just paying debt. Because that’s what I wanted. Not just a lower number—but freedom from the anxiety that came with every unexpected expense. Freedom from the shame that followed me around for years. I wanted to feel calm when I opened my banking app. That vision got me through more than one frustrating month.
I also had to get more honest about the emotional toll. Financial healing isn’t just about money—it’s about habits, yes, but also about grief. There were times I had to sit with the fact that I was cleaning up messes I’d made years ago. Some of them came from survival mode. Some came from trying to impress people. Some came from not knowing better. All of them were part of me. And instead of constantly beating myself up for not being “further along,” I had to start giving myself credit for simply staying in the game.
Because that’s the thing: the middle isn’t flashy, but it’s where the real transformation happens. It’s where you learn to live differently. Where you build endurance. Where you realize you can stick with something long enough to see it through. It’s not always fun, but it’s necessary.
One thing that helped me stay focused was tracking more than just the numbers. Sure, I updated my debt balances monthly—but I also started noting the little victories that didn’t show up on a credit report. Like the time I went into Trader Joe’s with a $40 budget and actually stuck to it. Or when I had a stressful week but didn’t reach for retail therapy. Or when I finally opened a high-yield savings account and felt like a grown-up for real.
I made a rule that I had to write down one “win” every week, no matter how small. It kept me from falling into that all-or-nothing thinking that used to make me give up in the past. Because progress isn’t just about dollars—it’s about decisions. And those decisions add up.
Now, I’m still not debt-free. But I’m deep into that middle stretch, and I’ve made peace with the fact that it’s going to take time. I don’t need every month to be dramatic. I just need to keep showing up. Some months I pay more. Some months I can only do the minimum and keep my savings on track. But I no longer see that as failure. I see it as balance.
And that, more than any number on a spreadsheet, tells me I’m going to make it.
If you’re in that middle phase right now, feeling like nobody sees you, I want you to know—I see you. This part is hard. It’s unglamorous. It asks a lot of you. But you are doing something powerful. You are rewriting your story in real time. And the middle? It’s not where dreams go to die. It’s where the foundation gets poured.
You’re not stuck. You’re building.