If you want to fast-track achieving your money goals, the following goal setting activities are for you.
When it comes to financial goals, most of us know what we have to do to have financial success.
We make New Year’s resolutions. “I’m never spending more than I make this year”.
We set goals. “I’m going to start saving 10% of everything I earn”.
But at the end of the day, when the credit card statement comes in, we wonder where the person that set those goals went to. Maybe he went to sleep on the second day of January. Maybe he left the house with you one day and got lost in traffic.
Whatever the case might be, I think we all know what is needed to be done to become financially free, or at the very least, start on that path.
It’s just that limiting beliefs have a way of stopping us in our tracks.
In this regard, this article is not meant to teach. It is meant to serve as a reminder on what you already know.
7 Goal Setting Activities for financial success
We look at those financial goal setting activities that will help to achieve those financial goals of yours;
Make wealth a course
The Western world moved on from barter trading when the Lydians made coins for the first time, around 700 BC. And since then, money had been in circulation.
Money had been an integral part to our very existence. Money have transformed from metal plates, to coins, to paper, to electronic money. Yet, since 700 BC, the laws that govern money remain unchanged.
Since 700 BC, money seems to never come to a certain group of people. These people haven’t learned how to attract money into their lives.
There is a book I have probably read about a hundred times. This book is an account of how the ancient people of Babylon have used the laws governing money to become rich.
They started teaching it to one another.
The story of the ancient people of Babylon is fascinating. This story was published in the richest man in Babylon.
These people used just a simple change in their money habits to make such drastic changes in their lives.
Arkad started saving 10% of everything he earned and became the richest man in Babylon. Dabasir, who was once a slave in Syria was able to pay off huge debt amounts and became rich afterwards. This happened because he was able to come up with a very simple repayment plan.
I know you’ve probably read the book before. And if you haven’t, that’s the point of this first activity. Get it! And read it!
If you wanted to have a degree in a field, what would you do? You would go to college.
If you wanted to learn a trade, you would go become an apprentice and learn about that trade.
Make no mistake; there is a secret language to money that you need to understand.
Money keeps talking to us at different levels. Only those that understand that language are going to attract more of it. It’s as simple as that.
In order to understand that language, you have to learn it. And the best place to learn it is through people that are fluent in this language.
And how do you know who is fluent in this language? Well, people that have earned lots of money (legitimately).
To get you started on your course on wealth, I would recommend that you read these books for starters; the richest man in Babylon by George S. Clason, think and grow rich by Napoleon Hill, the law of success in 16 lessons also by Napoleon Hill, The Wealthy Barber by David Chilton, Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki.
These books should get you started and set you up nicely for understanding the language of money.
Also, make sure you subscribe to this website and other websites that will give you contents that will raise your wealth awareness.
The mind is like steel that will rust if not constantly fed with knowledge. The more you feed it, the shinier and sharper it stays — Ancient Arabian Proverb
Write your financial goals down
Write down your goals.
I can’t say it enough times. It is very important and that’s why I say it over and over again.
Don’t type your goals on a sticky note or on the Microsoft Word on your system. Don’t type your goals on the notepad of your Android phones. Don’t do it on your ipads either.
Get a physical pen. Get a sheet of paper or a notebook. And start writing down your financial goals.
Yeah! Old school style!
Writing down your goals serves two purposes.
The first purpose is that the act of writing down goals helps to build neural pathways in the brain.
According to numerous Neuro-researches (1, 2, 3), the hand movement that comes with writing has been linked with brain function in both kids and adults.
The brain functions that writing enhances as found in a study at the Indiana University include neural activities and memory.
The second purpose of physically writing down your financial goals is that it serves as a reference that can be used to evaluate progress.
If you have a written copy of your goals on a sheet, you can take it everywhere with you and you can reference it whenever you want (may be the next 50 years). Also, when you re-read it on the sheet and use your hand to trace it, you are reinforcing the pathways further in your brain.
Create a vision board
This is one of the most powerful things you can do to aid achieving your financial goals.
Why?
Because the brain thinks and communicates in form of pictures which are usually referred to as mental images.
If you have a financial goal written down, your brain might not understand what you want it to do yet.
Unless you connect some form of mental images to it, the goal will remain at the conscious level. When your goal is handed to your subconscious mind is when the magic starts to happen.
What better way to insert pictures into the brain than vision boards?
Let me explain how this can be done in this respect.
You have to think about the end results of achieving your financial goals and get the picture of the positive consequences.
For example, if you have a goal of saving 10% of everything you earn and re-investing it, the result of achieving that goal can be the ability to retire at the age of 50.
What you can do is see yourself in luxury at that time (age 50). See yourself travelling the world with your spouse. See yourself in your dream house having more money than you can ever spend.
Have you seen the impact? The last paragraph is making you see things amazing right?
Yeah! That’s the main purpose of vision boards.
What you’ll do is find pictures of people around that age that are in luxury. This can be pictures of people on a yacht with their family and having a nice time. These people can be in their luxurious homes. And so on.
Another example is if you have a goal of starting a business, you can find pictures of people that are showing that they have success in their businesses. It can be pictures of happy employees working together. The picture can be a business growth chart. It can be the picture of a renowned successful entrepreneur in his business environment.
A good vision board will help you to visualize achieving your goals and it will make you feel good.
It will also help you to stay focused on your goals.
Create a system
When Stephen King was young, all he ever wanted was to become a published author.
In order to service that goal, he had to take up a teaching job. But he never once had his eye off of that goal.
And today, he has published 58 novels, 6 non-fiction books, and over 200 short stories. Some of these books have been adapted to movies that have broken box office records.
But he doesn’t get out of bed in the morning thinking of how he is going to publish 58 novels. He revealed that he uses a much simpler and manageable system daily.
The system is that he reads every day and writes 2000 words every day.
The renowned writer Ernest Hemingway had ten novels, ten collections of short stories, two non-fictions, and three autobiographical works published to his name.
His system?
He writes 500 words daily.
I’m big on the importance of creating systems around goals.
When you create systems, you are more than handling your brain a direction to go. You are actually relieving your brain of unnecessary pressure.
Let’s say you are in debt of about $10,000. And it is your goal to pay off the debt as soon as possible.
A good system around this goal will be to create a repayment plan for your debt.
Your repayment plan can be using 20% of your monthly salary to service the debt. This way, you won’t have to be thinking about the $10,000 you owe. You’ll only need to focus on putting aside 20% of your monthly salary. Also, you’ll only need to focus on how to successfully stick with that system.
If the debt is accruing interest, like credit card debts, you can start by paying off the ones with the most interest. Gradually, you will start noticing that you are becoming debt-free.
Have you been able to see how systems can give you a huge shift on perspective when it comes to your goals?
Get help
I’m yet to understand why our society keeps hammering on us the fact that we have to do everything ourselves (at least where am from).
We’ve been trained to tag “getting help” as weakness.
But I want you to know that financially successful people are often surrounded by a team of people that helps them achieve their financial goals.
You have to get in the habit of seeking the help of those people that will help you achieve your goals faster.
This is an activity that will help you fast-track the achievement of your financial goals.
Most of time, what will take you years to figure out can be easily done by someone that is a professional in that field.
Getting help can come in various forms. It might be in the form of getting a mentor or seeking professional advice from financial advisers.
You can get an accountant that will look at your personal and business spending.
They can advise you on how to save and can help you to get an understanding of your taxes. Believe me when I tell you that all these little things add up in the long run.
Getting help can even be in form of an app like chime. This app can automatically take out 10% of your paycheck that you deposit into that account.
This type of app helps you by taking out the need to constantly wrestle the impulse to spend everything you earn. It is also an effective system because I’ve been using this type of app for the past three years. So, I know how effective they could be when it comes to saving money.
Get accountable
Human beings are creatures of habit. Most of what we do daily is driven by the habits we’ve formed over the years.
Think about it.
You reading this article on this website is not a random thing. Chances are that you are a habitual reader (even if you aren’t voracious about it) that reads posts from different websites.
Much like reading is a habit of yours, so is the OPPOSITE of the financial goals you are constantly setting and failing to achieve.
Let me explain.
If you always want to stop using credit cards and you always use them, the meaning of this is that using credit cards has become your habit.
As AA (alcohol anonymous) has proven to the world, the easiest way to break a habit loop is to become accountable.
Accountability helps to interrupt brain patterns and a good accountability partner will offer support.
When you are accountable for your actions, there’s difference in the decision you make. Accountability forces you to give a second thought to your habitual way of thinking.
For example, if you have a goal of not using credit cards anymore and want to become accountable, you can inform a close friend about this goal.
You can give the person access to your credit card statement at the end of the month. If you’ve spent anything on the card, you can donate $50 towards republican’s campaign if you are a democrat (and vice versa) as penalty.
There are different ways that people hold themselves accountable for their financial goals.
Depending on your goals and the resources available to you, you can implement a way to make yourself accountable for that goal.
Reward yourself
Hurrah!
You made it to the final goal setting activity on the list. High five!
Okay, that’s physically impossible right now, so give yourself a round of applause.
You see what I just did there?
I just rewarded you for taking out five minutes of your time to read this post.
It makes us feel good when we celebrate ourselves.
So, from today, when you set any financial goals, as you cross every mini milestone, make sure you reward yourself.
This will keep it fun and interesting and you’ll feel good about yourself. Also, your confidence levels will increase.
Don’t wait till the one year mark to reward yourself for achieving that goal. You can reward yourself every month you hit the mark.