9 Steps to Achieve Your Financial Goals

Jim Rohn said "If you don't design your own life plan, chances are you'll fall into someone else's plan.  And guess what they have planned for you? Not much."

Meeting so many people in my line of work there are key themes that determine whether people achieve their personal and financial goals.  I find that you can take simple steps to determine what is truly important to you which will help you achieve all your goals.  They are the same steps successful people use every day to achieve greatness.  What is the main difference between them and everyone else.  They implement what is required to achieve their goals.  No need to worry I have provided my best tips to help you achieve your financial and non-financial goals.

1. Let go of the past
We all have goals we have set and never achieved.  This is more common on New Years Eve.  We all set goals or something we want to achieve in the new year however most never make it.  Why?  There is no connection with the achievement of the goal.

The first action you need to take is let go of the past, there is nothing that is going change what happened before this point in time.  Learn from the mistakes you have made.  The most successful people in the world have learnt their most valuable lessons from the their worst mistakes.  Take them on board and learn from your mistakes.

2. Name Your Goal

The first step I take with all my clients is to determine their most important goals and give that goal a name that means something to them.  Ask yourself, what's a goal that requires money and planning to achieve? Next ask yourself, What name would you like call that goal, something that means sometime to you.  This will allow you to personalise and be more specific about your goal. 

This is relevant whether it is a financial goal like financial freedom or non financial like losing weight.  The principle is the same.

3. Give it a Date
What I find through years of experience and helping clients is that many people do not set a specific date for the achievement of their goals.  When I mean specific, I mean the day, month and year you would like to achieve this goal.  Write this down under your goal name.  It's more meaningful if you are specific about a date.

One of my most recent client's even went as far as stating the time.  Do I think they have the motivation to meet this goal?  Most definitely.

4. How much money is required to achieve your Goal
The next tip is to be specific about the amount of money required to meet your specific goal.  For example, it might be $50,000 for a trip to Canada or $50,000 pa net of tax income for the rest of your life indexed.  You have now quantified what is required to achieve that specific goal. 

You can also apply the same principle to non-financial goals.  For instance if you wanted to lose weight, you would have an ideal weight that you wanted to achieve or alternatively an amount you wanted to lose.  This would be what you wrote down under the date.

5. Imagine you have achieved this Goal
With my client's I would build a story around their specific goal and have them imagine they are there, at the point of achieving their goal.  I then ask, What are you Thinking and Feeling when you are there?  You are looking for positive reactions or feelings connected to achieving this goal.

This will give the why behind your goal and assist you in keeping you focused on the end result.  Every time you start to be challenged, go back and imagine what you are thinking and feeling when you achieve this goal and this will help you move forward. 

6. Have a Written Plan of Attack
One thing I find in common with people who do not achieve their goals is they never write them down.  You are more likely to achieve goals when they are written down.

Another important aspect of achieving your goals is to have written strategy on how you are going to achieve your goal.  It's all well and good writing it down but if you do not have a written strategy and actions required to achieve your goal it's unlikely you will realise your goals.

What I also find is client's will sometimes have large goals they want to achieve and sometimes this can be daunting and may seem too hard to achieve.  By breaking the goal down into smaller chunks it will be more achievable.  For instance your goal could be to go on a dream holiday and you might require $50,000 to achieve this dream in five years time.  If you wanted to go on your dream holiday in 5 years time you would need to save approx. $833pm to achieve this.

I find when I am struggling with a workout I will break it down into smaller chunks and aim for that goal first, once achieved I move onto the next one.  It makes is easier to achieve.

7. Implement
Another reason why people don't achieve their goals is they simply don't implement what's required to achieve their goals.  If you are not motivated I would suggest this is not a goal you want to achieve.  If it is important enough to you, you will not worry about what other people think and just do what's required to achieve your most important goals.  Implementation of your plan of attack is what will get you to your end goal.

Remember there is no silver bullet and at times it may seem all too hard at times.  Like with any goal you want to reach it all comes down to the implementation.

8. If you go off course, brush yourself off and get back on course
Sometimes we go off course and it can be tough to get back on the right track.  I find the easiest way to get back on track is to let go of what happened and get straight back up and re-focus on what is required to achieve you goal.

Sometimes I find when working out I might miss a workout session or go out on a big night which might send me off track.  I accept this has happened and get back on track and move forward looking at the reason why I do what I do.  For me that is feeling better and getting fitter, ultimately leading to a healthier life.

9. Have someone hold you accountable
One of the reasons I find people do not achieve their goals is there is no-one to hold them accountable.  When our clients tell us what their goals are, we are there to hold them accountable to those goals and do everything to help them achieve their most important goals.  Sometimes this is all people require, someone to answer too and hold them accountable.  If client's get off track we are there to help them course correct and make the right decisions to get them to their end goal.

This can be the biggest value client's receive from using us. someone to guide, advise and keep them on the right track so that they achieve their most important goals for the reasons that are important to them.  This is no different to having a personal trainer, they are there to guide you and provide the support to achieve your personal goals.

If there are financial goals that you would like to achieve and you would like someone to be on that journey guiding, advising and holding you accountable feel free to Glenn on 1300 558 713 for your complimentary appointment.