This is part of a series of posts to help you take control of your money. If you missed the first post, check it out here.
Wake up. Jump in the shower. Eat breakfast. Go to work. Do you do the same thing every day without thinking about it?
Goals and priorities are what drive you forward in life. Without them, you’d wander aimlessly. You’d continue doing the same things day after day without ever questioning anything. Sounds like a pretty dull life, doesn’t it?
What you might not realize is that your goals and priorities don’t have to be written down on paper to exist. You may not have consciously decided what they are, but they exist. You might be shocked at what your current goals and priorities are!
Think About Your Goals and Priorities
What do you spend the majority of your day doing? What do you spend most time thinking or day dreaming about? These are all potential goals and priorities. In fact, if you’re spending most of your time doing or thinking about them, chances are they are what your current priorities are.
Whether it is driving to and from the office for an hour and a half each day, sitting in a cubicle for eight hours every Monday through Friday or spending hours every weekend trying to figure out how to make your money last until your next paycheck, you have goals and priorities that you might not have ever thought about before. Are those really what you want your goals and priorities to be?
I challenge you to take some time to sit and think for a few minutes. What do you want your goals and priorities to be in life? They don’t have to be the same things that you’re currently spending all of your time doing now. They don’t all have to be long term goals or things that can be done in the next week.
Just figure out what you want to get accomplished!
Short Term Goals
Now that you have thought up some ideas of things you want to get accomplished, pick a couple that you think you could knock out relatively quickly. Set a time frame for when you want to achieve whatever milestone you have set for yourself.
This doesn’t have to be a one and done goal either, a short term goal can be a stepping stone on the way to a much larger goal. They didn’t build Rome in a single day! You shouldn’t expect that for your huge goals either!
Mid-Term Goals
These are goals you want to accomplish in the next year to as far out as three years from now. You can continue along the path of one of your larger goals or you could have a completely unrelated goal for a mid-term goal. Just have something you’ll be continuously working toward over at least the next year.
Long-Term Goals
I like to think of long term goals as things I want to accomplish in the next 5 years. These are pretty big and make you want to work hard to accomplish them.
It is often best if these goals are aggressive, but achievable. You want to ensure you’re moving forward in your life, and setting a stretch long term goal is a great way to do that.
Why Does This Matter?
I wanted to set up a fun exercise to open your eyes about a crazy idea about your money. In order to do this you MUST know what your goals and priorities in life are, or at least have a good idea.
Are you ready to be shocked? Go ahead and read the next article in the series.
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