Why you need to set goals – even if you don’t achieve them.

So, it’s time that I admit the truth – we won’t meet our goal of paying off our mortgage this year. As of right now, we have just over $18,000 left and originally, we had planned to pay off our mortgage by 12/31/17 (the mortgage started at $27,938.08 in Jan 2017).

I won’t lie, it makes me sad and I feel slightly defeated that I won’t get to check off that goal off by the deadline that I set, but you know what?

If we had never set the goal, and then executed our plan to meet the goal, we wouldn’t even be as close as we are now to meeting that goal. And that is the magic of goal-setting. 

But let’s get real for a moment. Everyone this time of year starts talking about goal-setting and everyone gets all gung-ho about setting goals and making this New Year, “the year” that all their dreams come true. 

Here’s the secret to achieving your goals – never give up. 

The thing is, that most people do give up on their goals because it’s hard work to achieve them. This is actually why some folks will set “easy” or attainable goals because they’re afraid of not meeting their large dreams. They want the satisfaction of achieving goals but don’t want to do the hard scary stuff in order to achieve their wildest dreams. 

I don’t want that for you. 

I want you set big scary dreams and to do the hard work – even if things don’t go according to perfectly laid plans, I want you to do big things. 

I want you to win with your money, your relationships, your career, and most importantly your life. 

So, now for the big question, what do you want to achieve in 2018? 

What BIG thing have you been secretly holding onto but too scared to try for?

Let’s walk through an exercise real quick – when 2018 ends and 2019 begins, what would you need to have accomplished in order for you to claim that 2018 was a successful year? 

I want you to answer this question across these categories: Self-care; business/career; your personal relationships (with your parents, spouse, children, best friends, etc); your money; your spiritual life; your health. 

Take some time with this exercise, you’ve got big things to accomplish in 2018 and you want to make sure that you accomplish the most important things. Because here’s the thing, not everything is important and that’s why you need to go through this exercise with care – so you can identify the things that are in fact, the most important. 

Related post: How to save for a down payment on a house

Ask yourself, what is going well? What is not going well? What needs to change? 

You need to know the answers to these questions, so you can identify where you plan to go in 2018. Here’s an example:

Let’s say that 2017 has been plagued by the never-ending cycle of paycheck-to-paycheck and your desire for 2018 is get control over your money once and for all. 

Now, it’s ahhhh-mazing that you want to gain control over your money, but simply saying your goal is to get control over your money isn’t enough. You’ll need to come up with something a little more concrete. Read the below proposed plan and tell me what you think:

Action Plan:

• Create a working zero-balanced budget every month and stick to the budget. Focus on the first three months of the year just sticking to the budget and controlling my spending. 
• Save up a starter emergency fund of a $1,000 by June 2018 by going on a No Spend Month. 
• Make a debt payoff plan, using the debt snowball method and pay off $500 of debt by November 2018. 

Now here’s the thing, the above is a good action plan but it’ll only work if the person wanting it to work actually goes to work. Because let’s be honest, the above action plan is simple. It doesn’t have all the details but it is a starting point, and this starting point can really help those that are overwhelmed by the goals they want to achieve. 

Your action plan can be as detailed or simple as you’d like it to be so long as you move forward and take action on your plan. Your plan won’t work unless you do. If you haven’t read the book 12 Week Year, I highly encourage you to add this one to your list of books to read. It’s fabulous!

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