Make Your Money Work For YOU: Set Goals

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Take a look at the rest of the posts in this series if you haven’t already!

We talked a little about setting goals in my post about treating this like a process. However, I find the importance of setting goals so great that I felt it was a good idea to elaborate on the subject.

So listen up…

Why You Should Set Goals:

My story is a prime example of why you should set goals. It works! We’ve all heard the ‘ole adage, “If you aim at nothing you’ll get there every time.” Whoever came up with this was wise, because it’s true!

Seeing exactly what you want will make you focus on it and will make it easier for you to say no to all of life’s distractions (like TV). And putting a little pressure on those goals by blogging about it or updating your friends on facebook will help keep you accountable. Like what I’ve done in my monthly updates on my financial goals.

Make Sure Your Goals Are Realistic

I used to role my eyes every time someone told me I needed to set goals. Up until recently, setting goals was a sure fire way to fail. That is, until I realized that I was creating goals that were unrealistic.

Lets say, for example, that you want to make money blogging and you know just enough to be familiar with how much popular bloggers make. Excited, you set a goal that within 3 months you’ll be making at least $1000 per month blogging.

But then you realize that you have no idea how to set up a blog. You happen to find Blogging With Amy who walks you through the process step-by-step, but it’s very tedious work that could take you many months to do on your current time constraints. You know at this point you’re not going to reach your goal. Discouraged, you quit.

A more realistic goal would have been: within 3-6 months I will have my very own blog set up, but within 6 months to a year I’ll be generating at least $1000 from said blog.

Set Long Term Goals:

Setting long term goals is simple and broad. In the case of making money blogging (and this is just an example, you can apply this to any avenue of your life) here are some questions you should be asking yourself: how much money do you want to be making in 1 year? 5 years? 10 years? Keep it general .

Set Short Term Goals:

Short term goals can be a bit trickier since they are much more specific. I know I already mentioned it in my previous post abouthow my friend told me that a good runner focuses on short term goals, but I think it’s worth saying again:

“…set a short term goal like “I’ll focus on getting to a 1/4 mile and then after that I’ll focus on the next 1/4 mil…” and so on and so forth. This way, instead of focusing on getting to a mile and tiring out before then, you can focus on your short goals so that every time you make it to those goals you feel good for accomplishing something. This is especially important to do when you start to get tired.”

When it comes to things that are more abstract, like making money blogging, the road in which to get there may not be so clear. The best thing you could do for yourself is set short goals based on your understanding until you expand on that understanding more.

For example, when I first started blogging I had no idea how it worked. So the first goal I set was to learn how to set up a blog (and I gave myself a time frame in which to do this). Then my next goal was to learn basic CSS and HTML for the design of my blog. And then begin writing. You get the idea.

Focus on one goal at a time while keeping your long term goals in mind and you’ll find yourself reaching what you want so much faster!

Above all, DO NOT QUIT! Quitting is failing. If you mess up somewhere along the way (and you will), don’t beat yourself up and quit. Simply take a breath, calm down, and then move on. Sometimes all it takes is readjusting your goals, and refocusing, that will get you back into the swing of things.

How do you set your goals? Give us your advice bellow.

Next on the agenda in this series is to Get Your Spending Under Control!