New Year Resolutions? Learn how to KEEP THEM
Goal Setting Tips to help you stay on track in 2022
Executive Summary
- Goal setting is crucial to sticking to your resolutions, and achieving objectives for your life
- SMART framework helps you to set goals that enable success (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Time-based)
- Making the goal time-based helps the dream become a reality, without a deadline its just an idea
- Regularly reviewing those goals will help you keep on track to achieve the goals
- Having a trusted friend, partner or even a financial coach to keep you on track and accountable to the goals you set could be quite important to success if you struggle with self-motivation
The Need for Setting Goals
As the calendar turns to a new year, it gives many an opportunity to reflect, take stock of where they are, and what they want to achieve in the new year. To many this is known as “New Year’s Resolutions”. I am a firm supporter of setting goals and being intentional with our direction in life. Without goals, our ideas and dreams are just that: ideas – goals are what helps us put these ideas into action and therefore achieved. Goal setting can be used to help us drive for financial, relationship, personal growth or in a myriad of other areas – goals are what help us to be intentional with each aspect of our life.
With the goals we set, we need to ensure we have a plan to stick to them. In my experience, setting goals in the proper way is most of the battle to sticking to them, however finding an accountability partner is also helpful. Setting ourselves up for success is critical in achieving the goals we have for ourselves, and therefore keeping us moving in the direction we have set!
The remainder of this article will focus on a framework we can use to set goals that set ourselves up for success.
SMART Framework for Goal Setting
You may have heard of this acronym previously, but the SMART framework is a very helpful model to use when setting goals. This acronym stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time-based – all characteristics you should use when setting good goals that you can stick to. To help you understand how to use this framework, I will use an illustrative example of someone who is looking to purchase their first home.
Specific Goals
When looking at your future and what you want to achieve, being specific is important. For instance, using our example - simply stating “I want to buy a home” is not as helpful as “I want to buy a 2-bedroom, 2-bath home, in ____ neighbourhood.”. The second statement is much more specific, and puts your vision into context much more easily. Of note, you can adapt the specific nature of the goal to suit your needs. For example, you may not be set on a specific neighbourhood, but instead be looking for specific characteristics of a neighbourhood. Without being specific with your goal it will not give you the vision you need, and this will make it more difficult for you to stay motivated and on-track to achieving your goal.
Measurable Goals
Setting goals that are measurable is also very important in good goal-setting. If you are unable to measure success, you won’t know whether you have achieved the goal or not! Using our illustrative example, it is very easy to measure when the goal is achieved – when the home is purchased! An example of a goal that is not measurable, would be something like “I want to be wealthy”. In that example, what do you define as “wealthy”, in western culture what we consider as the “poverty” line is more wealthy than most of the developing world. Rather than stating “I want to be wealthy”, a more measurable goal would be “I want to achieve $___ in wealth.” – this makes the goal very clear, and easy to know when its been achieved or not achieved, as well as how you are progressing along the way.
Attainable Goals
This characteristic of good goal setting is important in helping you to “stay the course” and believe you can achieve what you are setting out to do. If you set a goal that is not attainable for your situation, it will be tough to stay motivated towards reaching it, and you will soon lose heart and reality will set in that you won’t achieve what you set out to. Using our illustrative example, setting the goal at a “2-bedroom, 2-bath house in ____ neighbourhood” is focused on making the goal attainable. You could even go one step further and put a rough dollar value, after some market research and home affordability calculations. Instead, by stating a 2-bedroom, 2-bathroom home, you ensure that achieving the goal is meaningful (meets the needs for your and your family) but also achievable (within your income and spending ability). Saying “I want to buy a 10-bedroom, 10-bathroom home, with full indoor pool, gym and movie theater” is quite likely too lofty of a target for someone looking to purchase their first home, and out of the price range for quite some time.
Realistic Goals
This aspect of goal setting is similar to setting “Attainable” goals, but has a bit wider lens. Setting realistic goals requires the most due-diligence, is meant to ensure that all aspects work together. For example, we covered off the importance of goals that are attainable (ie) 2 bedroom vs 10-bedroom starter home), but this aspect also looks at whether the timeline is realistic, whether the goal is realistic on your income etc. etc.. Said differently, at this point, you want to see if the goals can realistically be achieved given your situation, and if not, how you can adjust it to make it realistic (ie) in 2 years I will be making $X income, which will allow me to qualify for a mortgage of $Y amount and purchase my home). To put even more simply, you need to answer the question “Can I make the goal happen?”. This is the point where I would encourage you to discuss with family, friends, or even a financial coach to make sure your goal is realistic, otherwise you will not be setting yourself up for success.
Time-Based Goals
Making the goal time-based helps the dream become a reality, without a deadline its just an idea and can leave you vulnerable to “I’ll do it tomorrow”. By putting a (realistic) timeline on when you want to achieve the goal by, it will keep you motivated and pushing forward – making your dream goals a reality. Using our illustrative example, this would look like “I want to buy a 2-bedroom, 2-bathroom home in ____ neighbourhood, within 2 years”. By setting the timeline, you can then work backwards to break down the goal and create an action plan (for example: pre-qualify for a mortgage in 18 months and find a trusted realtor, save downpayment of $X by 18 months, which means $Y amount per month, research house market in target neighbourhood, and potential prices within 3 months from today).
Follow-up and Rewards
After you have set your goals, tested them to ensure that they are realistic, and put a time-line on them, the fun begins. Set a reward for yourself when you achieve the goal to help motivate you! Perhaps achieving the goal is the reward, but if it’s a goal you aren’t looking forward to working on, you can think of a (reasonable) reward for yourself, for when you do achieve it (ie) dinner out at a favourite restaurant, sporting event, or even a vacation if it’s a large enough goal). Regularly reviewing your goals will also help you to keep on track to achieve them – so decide how frequently you want to check in on the goals you set – eg) monthly, quarterly etc.
On-Going Support and Accountability
As a financial coach, our main goal is to keep our clients motivated, but also accountable to the goals and priorities they set. If you are someone who has big ideas, but difficulty creating and then sticking to a plan, think about looking for a trusted friend or financial coach to help keep you accountable. We offer free, no obligation consultations, and have no hidden agendas or sales goals – our job is to help you achieve your goals and dreams – that is it! To book a free consultation and learn more, you can click the following link: www.hopefinancialsolutions.ca/get-started.
We’d love to walk with you on your journey!
