Good morning Loves. How are your goals going so far in 2015? My savings goal is on track (more about that in a couple of weeks), my career goal to learn about SEO is coming along and my weight loss goal is slowly but surely still working. I’ve already lost a bit of weight (but not as much as I’d like) and I hope to be down another five pounds by the end of June. I wanted to lose five pounds a month but my body just doesn’t seem to be cooperating. So far all in all I’m happy with my progress.
I usually don’t like commitment, partially because I don’t like to be told what to do and partially because I can’t focus on one task for too long before getting bored. Every single year I set New Year’s resolutions and by March they go completely out the window. But not this year.
Make sure you really want your goal
So why is 2015 so different? I think it’s because I set smart financial goals this year a.k.a. realistic goals that I actually WANT to achieve. So often people set goals because they think they should, but the truth is if you don’t want to achieve your goals you never will. If you know you should stop smoking, but don’t really want to then you’ll never do it. I really want to save money this year and I’m willing to make sacrifices to do so. That’s why I’ll achieve my goal.
Be sure you get something great out of it
If you’ve set a goal what are you getting out of it? If you love smoking and you stop smoking you’ll be healthier but you’ll probably also be miserable. I like setting goals that give me something in the end, I don’t want to feel like I’m missing out on anything – that’s why I never give up chocolate. Losing weight is not easy, but in the end I’ll be skinnier, healthier and ultimately happier. That’s a goal well worth working towards.
Don’t get a goal buddy
I know a lot of people say to get a friend to workout with or compare your weight loss with someone who has similar goals, but that doesn’t work for me. Part of setting smart financial goals – or goals of any kind – is that they’re personal. Comparing yourself to others can only hurt the process, even though it’s intended to help.
Goals should always be realistic
If you set goals you want to achieve them, right?! It’s nice to have something to work towards but at the same time they have to be realistic. I know that I can realistically save $7000 by the end of the year if I cut out some of my extra spending, but not all. I know myself, if I scrimp on everyday living I won’t stick with it. I need to set goals that are achievable because watching the progress motivates me to keep going.
Photo from I’d Pin That
Great post. The older I get the more I realize I don’t really know what I want. I started a challenge to live healthy on a budget in January, but lost interest after a couple of months. This weekend I offered to babysit my 3-year old niece and had looking forward to it for weeks. It was so awful I couldn’t wait to hand her back to my sister yesterday when their plans were cut short. A good example of how I am not good at assessing reality. My plan now is to try to determine what I really want and to better assess reality.
“Make sure you really want your goal” – wow! That is such an important point! I constantly set goals because they are things I’m “supposed” to do, not always because I want to. Time to stop doing that!