How to get (and stay) motivated when your debt feels overwhelming

Paying off your debt can seem like a relatively straightforward task on paper: You make your monthly payments, avoid adding new charges to the balance and put extra money toward what you owe whenever possible. However, balances are moving in the opposite direction for many borrowers right now. Over the past 12 months, 45% of Gen Z respondents saw their debt increase, according to a new study by Accredited Debt Relief , as did 39% of millennials, 34% of Gen X and 30% of baby boomers.

That can make sticking with a repayment plan particularly difficult. And, when a hefty portion of your payment is absorbed by high-rate interest charges, you may send hundreds of dollars to your creditors without seeing your balances fall by nearly as much. Add in a month when you can't make an extra payment — or have to put an unexpected expense on a card — and it can start to feel like you're barely making progress.

But losing motivation doesn't necessarily mean your debt payoff plan has failed. It could simply mean that the strategy you're using isn't giving you enough opportunities to see and sustain your progress. So, if your debt has started to feel overwhelming, making a few adjustments to your approach could help make the path forward feel more manageable.

Find out how Accredited Debt Relief could help you find a solution today .

Debt repayment is typically a long process, so relying on motivation alone can make it tough to stay consistent. So, rather than taking that approach, it can help to build a system that makes your progress more visible while reducing some of the friction that can knock you off course. Here's what to consider:

If you owe tens of thousands of dollars across several credit cards, focusing exclusively on becoming completely debt-free can make the finish line seem impossibly far away. Breaking that goal into smaller milestones, though, can offer you more frequent signals that what you're doing is working, making it easier to stay the course.

For example, your first goal might be to pay off $1,000, reduce your total balance by 5% or eliminate one small credit card balance. Once you hit that target, you set another. With this approach, you aren't changing the ultimate goal of paying off your debt; you're simply creating checkpoints along the way.

Those smaller wins can also give you useful evidence that your plan is sustainable. If you've already reduced your balances by several thousand dollars, for example, you have a concrete reminder of your progress when motivation starts to fade.

Watching your total balance decline can be motivating, but it isn't the only measure worth tracking. And, in some cases, it may not even be the best one.

Consider keeping track of how much principal you've paid, the number of accounts you've eliminated or how much monthly cash flow you've freed up as debts disappear instead. You could also compare your current interest charges with what you were paying six months ago to see the difference.

Tracking those numbers can make your incremental progress easier to visualize.