How to Set Goals Part 1

The importance of goals in your life and finances is paramount. How can you get out of debt or save enough for retirement or go on that big family vacation if you don’t have goals to get you there? Picture yourself standing at the base of a mountain. The summit is your big vision or dream for some aspect of your life. Now, you know that you can’t just magically go from the bottom of the mountain to the summit. You must put one foot forward and take steps to get there. Picture yourself climbing that mountain. You may start feeling a little exhausted, so you look ahead to a giant tree coming up along the path and say to yourself, “I am going to make it to that tree!” Then you take one step at a time, keep working towards that tree, and before you know it, you’re there! You can look back to see how far you have come, and then look forward towards that summit, and you find you have the motivation to keep moving forward.

So where do you start in your real life goal-setting? You start by defining your dream. Today, let’s say you want to run a marathon. 26 long miles. Think about why you want to do this. You want to be in peak physical shape? Now think about some Objectives that will help get you there. Like: you need to drop that extra 20 lbs. that you’ve recently acquired through your love of milkshakes. You need to be able to run that long distance, but right now you get a little winded climbing the stairs to go to bed at night. So you write down your list of short-, mid-, and long-term objectives:

Short: Be able to run at least 10 miles in a stretch.

Mid: Lose 20 lbs.

Long: Be able to run at least 20 miles in one stretch before the marathon.

You have your objectives now, so the next step is to define your goals, the steps that will get you there. There are some basic things that goals must be, which I will discuss in more detail in the next post (yes, come back next week!). Goals must be all of these things: realistic, measurable, challenging, emotional, and time-oriented. If your goal is not all of these things, then it will not be helpful in getting you to your big vision. Also keep in mind that you should place your goals in a highly-visible place, meaning that you see them often, to keep them at the forefront of your mind so that you will continue to work on achieving them.

Tags: goal setting, goals