Yes, You Need Goals Before You Start

I've always been a huge proponent of goal setting. Even before I learned about effective goal setting, I always had some idea in my mind of what I wanted from the things I was doing. As I reached adulthood, I was lucky enough to learn how to set the most effective goals - even if I didn't always follow the advice, oops!

When it comes to making moves in your life, knowing what you want out of the changes you make is SO important. If you don't know why you're doing something, what you're working towards, then what incentive do you have for doing it? That's not to say you can never just do things, you absolutely can - but when it comes to things that could have a huge effect on your life, do you really want to just float along? Of course not! So that's why you need to set your goals, so you can create the game plan for your life.

What Should You Do?

My favorite method is twofold: first, you set the big umbrella goal, the thing you ultimately want to achieve in the long term; and second, you set smaller framework goals, that as you complete them will help you climb towards the big outcome goal.

Traditional wisdom says goals need to be SMART: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely (or Time-sensitive.) This is 100% true. But when you're looking at the furthest reaches of your future, the place you ultimately end up when you reach the pinnacle of your work, then I say, go nuts! Make that goal as wild and out there as you can! From there, you work backward, setting a series of smaller SMART goals, until you reach the spot you're at right now. You can make those as small or big as you need, and have as many steps forward as necessary to reach that endpoint.

Even perfect goal setting and work ethic won't guarantee you'll achieve that huge end goal, or over time, you may realize you want something different than what you had initially. That's fine! Feel free to change things up whenever you feel like you need to. The important thing to remember is that these are guidelines, to help you make choices that will lead you where you want to go. Without guidance, you could waste time on dead ends, do things that run counter to what you really want, or just keep you from succeeding for longer than it should.

What Are My Goals?

Right now, my big umbrella goal is to be living debt-free (including mortgage and car loan!), so that I can travel regularly with my family and work from anywhere - specifically, I want to snorkel in as many countries as I can. How am I going to get there? Well, you don't need the nitty gritty of my list, but I'm starting with two financial goals: $200 to make an extra credit card payment, to start the ball rolling on getting that debt paid off; and $200-$300 as spending money for the trip my husband and I are hoping to take this summer (our very first vacation, we didn't even have a honeymoon!) From there I have goals related to monthly income, amount of work daily, and things around my house that will all come together to give me the life I dream of.

In the future, I'll chat about these goals individually, so that you can see how well I'm doing working towards them. I hope that this will help you learn and build towards your goals, too, even if it's learning what NOT to do! What are your goals right now? Are you wanting to quit your job, increase your monthly income, or fund a hobby or interest? Let me know in the comments!

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