Have you ever set financial goals for yourself, but that’s all that you achieve, just setting the goal? Because same. Why do we go to all the trouble of goal setting, just to let the idea fall by the wayside? How do you actually accomplish the goals you are setting for yourself?
Goal Setting
To kick it off, let’s talk about the way in which you are setting your goals in the first place. In order to be successful, you must set SMART goals—this means setting realistic AND highly specific goals. When goal setting, address the following acronym:
Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Relevant Time-based
Specific goals are goals that go into detail about what you want to accomplish. For example, one person writes down the goal, "I want to be healthier." while another writes down, "I want to workout frequently in order to be healthier." While the end goal is the same, person #2 has a much more specific vision of how this will be achieved. Be specific.
Setting Measurable goals ensures that you can actually SEE progress and achievement. Using the prior example, the goal "I want to workout frequently in order to be healthier" is a great start, but what does frequently mean? A couple times a month? Once a week? Five times a week? Define a quantifiable, measurable attribute to give yourself something to actually check off. Try rephrasing this goal to be, "I want to workout 3 times a week in order to be healthier."
Listen closely to this one; set goals that are Attainable. DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP. When goal setting, I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to set goals that you can actually accomplish. This is NOT to say that you should not adjust your lifestyle to make positive change. You should absolutely change your habits and routines to become a healthier, wealthier, goal accomplishing individual. However, there are only 24 hours in a day, so it would be unrealistic to set a goal to workout 4 hours a day every day when you have a full time job, a social life, a necessity for sleep, and everything else specific to your life. When goal setting, really take time to objectively examine whether that particular goal is feasible for you. Can you save $2,000 a month when you only make $2,500 total? Probably not. Setting goals that are unattainable is a quick way to burnout and lose out on all that you can accomplish.
Relevant goals are ones that matter to you personally. At the end of the day, you must feel passionately towards a goal you have set in order to accomplish it. If you are setting goals that are not relevant to your life, then you won't think about them often enough to make any headway, nor will you have the drive to push through when things get tough. Irrelevant goals are doomed to get lost in the shuffle of all the habits, routines, and new goals that truly do matter to you, so don't waste your time with goal setting that doesn't lean into your passions and priorities.
Last but not least, let's talk Time-based goals. Setting a time-based goal leans back into the measurability point. We want to set goals that we can measure in progress, but also in timeline. How soon do you want to accomplish the goal you are setting? Setting a goal to save $10,000 is amazing, but how long are willing to take to get there? Give yourself deadlines and milestones within the goal, in order to make sure you are on track for the big vision.
Accountability
Now that you've learned more about how to set successful goals, let’s talk financial accountability. First and foremost, NEVER share access to your financial information with someone you don’t have deep trust in, and honestly, I would recommend not doing this at all if you can help it. We shouldn’t be ashamed to have honest conversation about our finances, but we should be extremely careful of who we give control to. Keep this in mind as we dive in deeper.
What does it mean to be financial accountable? In short, financial accountability is the process of electing someone you trust, and you know will be honest with you, to check-in on your goal progress and call you out for not following through.
According to Mindset University, having a specific accountability appointment with someone you’ve committed to raises the likelihood of you accomplishing your goal to 95%.
Did you read that?! Ninety-five percent! At that rate, you can accomplish anything.👊
When you set financial goals, do you have someone that is keeping you accountable?
The POWER of relationships👥 & honesty🤞 is REAL. Both have to work together in order to have successful accountability. Share with your accountability partner where you'd like to be financially, and how you're going to get there. Let them provide feedback on your SMART goal to come up with the most efficient, killer plan possible. After that, set schedule for them to check-in on your achievements🏆, and lean into them for advice and comfort if things aren't going the way you planned. There's no shame in getting side-tracked or falling behind. The only true loss is giving up on your dreams altogether.
Building community around our financial goals is extremely important in long term success. If you don't have someone you can picture yourself doing this with, reach out and we're always happy to help.