The start of a new year always seems to bring new hope. As we contemplate the past year, we look forward to what we’d like to accomplish in the New Year. You’d be amazed how many calls I get requesting a free consultation around the New Year. As the year progresses, we lose sight of our initial goals and regress back to our old habits. But there are ways to make sure you don’t go back to the old ways. Here are three steps to change:
1. Write Your Resolutions Down. It is important to take your resolutions from thinking to doing by actually writing them down. Put them on paper, and be as detailed as possible. If you want to lose 10lbs, write your desired weight down, write I am 150lbs. If you want to go to Venice write I am visiting Venice for 14 days in August, etc.
2. Visualize Your Goals Happening. Imagine yourself riding a gondola to an Italian restaurant and sitting down and enjoying a nice bottle of Chianti over a pasta marinara. Taste the sauce and smell the sea in your visualization.
3. Remind Yourself Daily of Your Goal. By constantly reminding yourself, by reading your goal, either first thing in the morning, or before you go to bed, you bring to top-of-mind awareness your goals each day. A friend of mine said that it takes 30 days to establish a habit. I’d suggest reading your goal for at least 30 days to see if you experience a change in your thinking. Of course I recommend reading it every day for the entire year, but baby steps first.
Writing your goals down shows you what you want to do. Visualizing them makes you excited about them. Reminding yourself of your goals daily keeps you thinking about them constantly, which subconsciously makes you think about ways to accomplish your goals. You can choose between buying that flat screen TV on sale, or using your old TV to get you by until you visit Italy. You can do the same thing with your financial goals! Write them down. Tell me about them. Together we can put pen to paper and try to make them happen. Once you’ve written out a plan, imagine that plan happening, and remind yourself of it daily. How do I know these steps work? When I graduated from MSU I had a goal of owning my own business. Today that goal is a reality.
2 replies to "Organize Your Finances: 3 Ways to Keep Goals and Resolutions"
Great points Rich; writing down goals is so important to actually achieving them. If they are simply floating around in your head chances are that they will remain there- just floating around.
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