2 Steps to Smashing Your #Moneygoals
When it comes to achieving your money goals there are two things we need to know and do that will increase our chances of winning 100%!! No joke guys! This really works especially when it comes to saving and investing.
Imagine 10 years into the future, sitting peacefully relaxed on your garden chair in your neatly lawned garden at the back of your manor. You are on the phone chatting away when all of a sudden you hear a loud commotion. The noise sounds like a riot, but as it gets closer and closer you realise it is the sound children, your children back from school storming straight through your hallway excitedly, knocking down everything in their path until they get to the garden and to wrap their sweaty arms around you.
Maybe you can't imagine that because that my fantasy, you can pick your own scenario or goal... It could start like this
Imagine you just finished your school exams…(how would you like to feel?)
Imagine you are at your birthday party…(how would you like to look?)
Imagine yourself in 5 years /10 years or 20 years time… (where would you like to live/ what would you be doing?)
Whatever your goal, from passing an exam, losing some weight, gaining some muscle, saving for a home deposit, or investing for your future the best way to assure your success is by
Starting Small and Being Consistent!
Start Small now
Do you remember the last diet you went on that failed? When you decided to clean out your cupboards in one day? How long did that diet last again? Or the last time you committed to going to the gym 5 times a week when you had never set foot in a gym before? Remember signing up for their one-year non-refundable gym membership then giving up after the first month?
Well, I remember all too well! I remember my 2017 new years resolution. I was going to eat better, give up sugar and gain weight. I said I would start on a particular day and I did. All within 24 hours I cut out all sugar and started 1 hour morning workouts. It was fun for the first day, and I pushed myself for the first week but I slowly lost the will to continue. By week 2 I had returned to my old ways, and I celebrated my return by buying a packet of super sweet waffles and ice cream. Which I ate after my breakfast of chocolate spread and bananas on toast with a cup of hot chocolate. Talk about sugar overload! Sometimes slow and steady does win the race.
Multiple Small Wins
Have the patience to breakdown your goals into tiny small steps. These steps will become your roadmap to healthier eating/ saving £100/ building your business/ getting an A in an exam.
This way you will clearly see the steps that you need to take to accomplish your goal and the daily actions you need to do to fulfil each step.
Achieving these smaller steps builds your self-confidence and gives your mind the proof it needs to believe you can smash your #goals.
You can look at the steps like a step on a ladder. Imagine you are at the bottom and your goal is right at the top of the ladder. If you tried to stretch your legs to get to the top of the ladder in one big step you might hurt yourself or pull a muscle. You may even fall right off which might make you think and believe the lie that you can’t achieve that goal. Each small step making climbing the ladder painless and achievable and will reinforce the fact that you can do anything you put your mind to.
Starting small also ensure you start, instead of spending time trying to acquire all the information you think you will need. Start with the little information you have and review as you go along.
Think it’s time for an example
Let's say look at my goal of having a sizable pension pot of £800k by the time I'm 70.
That's 38 years away.
So first I opened a private pension (more in that soon).
I decided what I wanted to invest in (my portfolio).
I didn't have much income so starting small with £20 per week. That's £2.85 a day!
And committing to being consistent.
My potential result
If I stick to contributing £20 per week for the next 38 years. My total contribution of £39,520 and when invested with a 10% return after 38 years (due to compound interest) my pension pot would be worth almost £420,000.
If I'm able to double my contribution towards my future from £20 per week to £40 per week my pension pot will be worth £833,000.
(Investments can go up or down and this doesn’t take taxes into consideration. I am just giving a general example)
What happens when we don't Start Small now?
Do you remember that time you knew an exam was coming months in advance, but you did nothing until a week or day before you sat the exam? I remember it well. It was the summer of 2005 and I was about to seat my A2 physics exam and I was prepared. I was just sitting in the library overwhelmed and feeling sorry for myself about how much work I had to do. Work I caused by not doing all the small things each day leading up to that day at the library.- studies
(At this point I will need to get out of my way and double down on my studies. Regret is a waste of time. Move on quickly and move forward taking slightly bigger steps.)
2. Be Consistent
30 minutes reading my Bible and meditating each day doesn't produce immediate improvements in my faith and confidence, but give me a few months I bet I would be different . . .
Don't worry about not seeing instant growth in your life or bank account, instead try to see the version of yourself in the future who is grateful to the past you for consistently doing something that seemed insignificant.
Be consistent in doing the little things when everyone is praising you and when no one is watching, be consistent when you are tired and it's past midnight and half the world is asleep. Be consistent even when you don't see the results. Be consistent when you would rather give up. Be consistent when no one believes in you and when you doubt yourself. No matter what be consistent.
Consistency builds your character, and disciplines you. It stretches you to become better than you were yesterday and ultimately leads to success no matter how long you have been trying.
Let me know in the comments what small steps you are going to take consistently to achieve your goal