Set goals to reach your full potential

Setting goals is the first step toward gaining control of your finances and your life.   Goals provide the foundation for the motivation and inspiration to move you forward toward the life you want to lead. You may be capable of great things, but to realize your full potential, focus your energy on achieving clearly defined goals. Goals are a great tool to help you focus on what you want to accomplish.

The goal setting process is useful in helping you evaluate, understand and stay on top your current situation.  It’s important to understand where you are in relation to where you want to go.  Establish some life goals before developing a financial plan to help you achieve them.  Once you identify your long-term goals, devise a plan to meet these goals.  Break your goals down into an action plan with small more manageable short-term goals.   Smaller short-term goals provide you with greater control, organization and a sense of accomplishment as you complete them.  Focus on a small number of goals, at any one time, to avoid being overwhelmed by the enormity of big long-term goals.  Strive to set goals that are both challenging and realistic.

Goals help motivate you to take action and avoid procrastination.  They can provide you with hope and a sense of purpose.  The sense of satisfaction, excitement and enthusiasm that comes from meeting your goals can help change your behavior.  These positive feelings fuel the desire and motivation to continue working toward meeting your long term goals and overcome obstacles that may stand in your way. 

Goals also help you build momentum to stay on track.  Goal setting leads to improved time management and makes you less likely to get distracted and spend time on insignificant activities.  Goals can also curb your temptation to spend money on unimportant items and make impulse purchases.

Setting goals makes you accountable to yourself and provides a way to measure your progress.  You are less likely get side tracked because you have a mental trigger that subconsciously reminds you to work toward your goals. 

Additionally, goals are tremendously important in reaching your full potential. As you accomplish short term goals your self-confidence improves.  This encourages you to push beyond boundaries that you previously set for yourself and continue working toward your end objective.   As you check off your goals and step beyond your comfort zone you will continually grow and expand to achieve what you previously thought was unattainable.

 Goal setting helps you focus on what needs to be accomplished and encourages you to change your behavior to meet the end goal.  The process helps to identify the actions and priorities needed to meet your objective and keeps you on track to meet your long-term goals.  Goals provide the roadmap that enables you to maximize your life experience and attain financial security.