How to break down your financial goals.

“How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.” Author unknown

When I’m working on a large project or working toward a goal I easily become overwhelmed by the amount of moving pieces and steps I need to accomplish to reach the main goal. If you suffer from the same overwhelmed feeling when it comes to your goals, you’re not alone. Today I’m going to share with you what I’ve learned and what I’m doing to combat the overwhelm and keep moving forward, because let's face it, it’s never really going to go away as long as we are working towards some accomplishment or goal. My hope is that you can put this into practice in your financial journey and make progress as a result.

Be your future self now.

I recently re-read Dr. Benjamin Hardy’s book Be Your Future Self Now. He lays out the steps to connecting with and ultimately becoming the version of your future self that you want to become.?

A common mistake when working to accomplish something important is that we often become overwhelmed by the amount of work, time, and effort that goes into it. It can be frustrating to see ourselves falling short over and over again and not making significant progress because we set our expectations high and make big goals. Big goals and high expectations are awesome and achievable if we take it one step at a time.

Find the most important thing to do right now.

Dr. Benjamin Hardy in his book Be Your Future Self Now states that the first step to becoming your future self is to find your contextual purpose.

This means to find out where you want to be in the next 12 months to 3 years (the closer to the present the better and more clear you will be). This could be a savings goal, an income goal, or any goal for that matter. Maybe your goal is to invest in your first income producing asset such as a rental property or a business, maybe it's to start your own side business to eventually replace your income. Whatever the goal is, write down when you want to accomplish that goal and the steps it will take to get there.

An example.

Let’s use Jim as an example.?

Jim makes $75,000 per year at his job and in the next ten years wants to own enough investment real estate that produces a $100,000 a year income so he can quit working his current job and do something different with his time.

This sounds like a big goal and ten years is a long way off so he focuses on shorter term goals that will get him to his long term future vision. So he sets a goal to purchase his first real estate property that produces income for him in the next 12-24 months. He has a few problems though;

1.? He doesn’t know anything about real estate, and?

2.? He doesn’t have enough cash to put a down payment on a property.

Knowing exactly what he wants to accomplish in the next 12-24 months Jim can focus on fewer priorities in this area that will get him where he wants to be.?

1. Gain the knowledge he needs to start analyzing deals so he can reduce the risk of making a bad investment through books, courses, podcasts, or by joining mastermind groups where people are already doing the things he wants to do.
2. Make saving a priority so he has the necessary cash for a down payment. This could mean finding ways to save more than he already is, or finding ways to increase income so he can save even more.

Notice that these two things will not make Jim rich or even financially free right away but will help move him one step closer to where he wants to go long term. By focusing his energy and effort on fewer things he can reduce his overwhelm and stay motivated by a win that won’t be so far into the future.?

Whatever your long term vision looks like, how can you break it down into bite size pieces and focus on fewer and more impactful actions??

If you have a hard time envisioning the future you want I highly encourage you to read Be Your Future Self Now by Dr. Benjamin Hardy.