Before thinking about monetary, or life goals, first determine what your priorities are; this will help keep focus and maintain momentum-a goal reminds us of the why we sacrifice. I set a five-year plan, a one-year plan and then monthly plans for both my business and personal goals. When I set these goals, I make sure they match up with my top goals, if they don’t then I evaluate how I can compromise for the happy life I prioritize.
When starting out on your goal planning choose twenty important goals you want to achieve.
Once you’re done writing down all twenty, get a drink and sit with your pen, just sip and think about which goals you want to prioritize while holding your pen. Select the most important five and write them on a separate paper, those are your goals for the year. The rest are for the coming five years, leave them alone for now.
It’s most important to start on those five now.
Now think about how will you achieve them? What actions do you need to achieve them? Is the goal more money? Do you have the job, or business which makes enough money to achieve them? If its relationships do you know the people who will introduce you to friends, business associates, or a love interest? Spend a couple days slowly thinking about the actions you will need to take in order to achieve these five goals within the year.
Take another paper and write the goal, then the actions needed under it, for example, if your goal is to save $10,000.00 then write:
Goal
Save $10,000.00
Actions: How much money do I make? What’s the minimum I can live off of and how much can I set aside if I live off less?
If you don’t make enough money to save a thousand a month, then what can you do to make more? Can you work more hours? What about asking for a raise from your job? Are you able start something on the side?
Then determine 1000 a month for 10 months by taking 500 from each bi-weekly pay check, or 250 per week. If you need a second job, or overtime then determine how many hours you need to put in to make a 1000 a month and use that as your guide. Be detailed, the more detailed the better.
If your goal is to make more friends, determine how many. Would you like two new friends this year? What sort of friends do you want? Do you want motivated people who are successful and might help introduce you to people who know people you want to meet? For example:
Goal
How many friends: 3
Who are they: business minded entrepreneurs who are in your industry
Actions
Look for local groups, I use networking sites like Meetup, or Eventbrite to find events and activities. First narrow your search for specifics to what you want and then when you don’t find enough specifics only then broaden your search; prioritize specifics first. Check with your university for alumni who do what you’re wanting to do, they might have events, or can be a mentor. If you live in a city where you didn’t go to school you can also check the local schools for alumni who do what you want to do. I also like the non-conventional educational areas too, I’m in tech, Udemy had good events to meet people I was looking for when I lived in New York.
Be careful for anyone who has a business that sounds too good to be true, or wants you to get involved in something hot- right now. Avoid people who call themselves entrepreneurs, there are a lot of scammers out there. Someone who has a real business will tell you how they serve their customers, or how their business works when explaining what they do. People who make real money won’t try to get you into what they are doing until they know you better. Pay attention to the people around you and have fun. If you’re having fun on the journey then even the hard times feel less hard.
I keep a journal with all my goals for the year and the actions to get me to them. I don’t go over it daily, but once a month, or maybe twice a month. In December before the New Year I review it and plan my next year. I’m not too strict about it, my overall priority goal is to have fun and live a life of comfort; I don’t want to disrupt that too much, journaling daily is too much effort at this time in my life. In the past I have and I might in the future, it’s wonderful to do when super busy with lots going on, helps keep the head on straight.
