As with all things in life, it’s important to set goals. Goals allow you to have something tangible to work towards. Making a blanket statement of “I want to save more” does not allow a specific goal. Stating though that you would like to save an additional $100 this month for your savings account is an actual concrete goal that you can monitor and achieve.
Keeping your goals realistic is equally as important as making them concrete in nature.
Setting a goal of saving an extra $500 each month for your savings account sounds like a great plan, but are you prepared to make the big cuts necessary (assuming that’s that case) to make this happen? Setting the goal of paying off your credit cards by year end sounds great as well, but is that truly feasible?
- Know your goal (Say it out loud and visualize it!)
- Write it down and keep a log of your progress
- Set checkpoints if your goal is a long term goal – for example, if you would like to pay off XYZ credit card by year end, set a monthly checkpoint to make sure you are on track and what you can do to step it up if not.
When it comes to making goals, of course you want to challenge yourself, but don’t make your challenge so stiff that it’s just not attainable. If you are not realistic when planning your goals, you will not only squish your chances of reaching your finish line, but will also squish your excitement and drive to get it done.
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