Goals are an important aspect of human existence. We rarely find ourselves in a state completely suitable for human existence without any manipulation from human labor. Modern society is the result of humans laboring to make a harsh environment more comfortable for human living. As we make the environment more satisfactory to our liking, our focus has shifted to more introspective aspirations. The development of a wild environment has given the everyday man the opportunity to pursue such endeavors as personal development, self-actualization, love, happiness, and the pursuit of abundance. Without goals, humans wouldn’t have the aptitude to get from where they are to where they want to be.

Considering that the everyday person today is not a hunter-gatherer, a common goal many people have now is financial goals. More people today have goals such as to make more money, to get out of debt, to fix my credit, and the list goes on. Albert Einstein once said, “One should not pursue goals that are easily achieved. One must develop an instinct for what one can just barely achieve through one’s greatest efforts.” Mr. Einstein presents the framework for these 9 tips that can help you achieve your financial goals.

TIP 1. SET SPECIFIC & CLEAR GOALS

Many people fail to achieve what they want because their goals are ambiguous. I want to improve my credit. I want to be rich. I want financial independence are all examples of obscure financial desires. When your goals are unclear, your plan and strategy will also be erratic and unfocused. If your financial goal is as general as the goal to travel, you might enact a plan that alternates between biking, driving, and public transportation without any rationality in your choice.

Examples of clear financial goals are to have a credit score of 790, to have a personal net worth of $35 million, and I want my car wash business to provide me with an annual income of $80,000 after taxes and business expenses. With these specific and detailed goals, your mind will go to work coming up with the most efficient and clear plan available to you at that moment. You’re more likely to stick to this plan and not abandon it whimsically. You’re more inclined to change plans and strategy only when a plan serves no purpose.

TIP 2. BREAK DOWN THE GOAL INTO SMALLER GOALS

Looking at our goals in their entirety can be a grandiose task. To prevent intimidation and discouragement of a large goal, try to visually break it up. Try viewing smaller goals as rungs on a ladder leading up to your ultimate goal. If your goal is to have a 790 credit score and your current score is 620, you can view each rung as 20 points increasing to the main goal of 790.

When breaking up large goals into smaller goals, you get the benefit of staying motivated and energized. You’re less likely to get discouraged and quit if you haven’t yet accomplished your goal. Research has shown that people who can delay gratification are more likely to achieve long-term goals. Delaying gratification for an extended period of time can be jarring even for the most disciplined of us. One way around this is to create rewards for each smaller goal you accomplish. This also gives the added benefit of making the journey and process more enjoyable.

TIP 3. HAVE A PLAN

Have a plan. It doesn’t have to be good, complex, or detailed, but have a plan. If you’re determined and focused in the pursuit of your financial goals, your plan will improve. Also document your plan. Write it down and revisit it. Many people get stuck at the planning stage trying to come up with a glamorous, elaborate plan. Let me save you some trouble in coming up with a plan. Go to Google and search for a plan for your specific goal. Many pages will come up. Choose one at random. Resist the desire to spend days and hours trying to find the best one. After you have chosen one, alter it to fit your life. 

Plans are necessary but also have become overrated. Media and society have glamorized and mythicized “the perfect plan.” Due to this, we have credited success to “the perfect plan” and less so to other factors such as flexibility, grit, and adaptability. Plans change and get thrown out depending on the situation. There is no perfect plan. Whatever plan you have, you must stick to it and adjust as necessary. There is no point in having a map and not using it, assuming you are heading to a destination that you have never been to.

TIP 4. BE FLEXIBLE

At this point you should have a specific financial goal accompanied by a plan. What now? Go execute. Don’t overthink your first step. Your first step is usually the thing you can do today. When you begin to execute, you will eventually run into obstacles. Wouldn’t it be nice if life was without obstacles? Life without obstacles is not realistic, nor should it be desired. A person hoping for an easy life is misplacing their effort and wasting an opportunity to rise above circumstances and grow.

Flexibility can help you overcome obstacles and help you achieve your financial ambitions. Take every opportunity as it arises to be flexible. Some may believe it’s a cop-out or it’s a compromise, but that’s far from the truth. As you work towards your financial ideals, you’re becoming more experienced, which is providing you better insights into assessing and analyzing your plans and goals.

Take, for instance, the specific financial goal example provided early of obtaining a 790 credit score. A person may aspire to obtain a 790 credit score in order to be in the best position to purchase a house in five years. While working on improving their score, they learned that there aren’t any added benefits from having a score of 740 and 790. They estimated that they could achieve this in two more years, which would be two years sooner than the five years they first estimated. They then decide to change their goal from 790 to 740. This adjustment allows them to not continue to pursue a financial ambition that provides no added benefits for their efforts.

Compromise–which is defined as the settlement of a disagreement with both sides granting concessions–gets a bad rap, is viewed negatively, and is associated with weakness of character. That is a distorted way to view compromise. In order to achieve anything in life, a person must give up something. That something can be time or effort. The key to a clear conscience is to put yourself into a position that whatever is given up or conceded does not go against your moral values.

TIP 5. BE DETERMINED, RESILIENT & PATIENT

Determination

Let’s return to Mr. Einstein’s quote provided earlier: if we choose goals that we can barely achieve, this will require us to work hard and stretch our efforts. In doing so, we will have to be determined in our efforts. We must be firm in our purpose to acquire our financial ambitions and hold steadfast to it. There will be many reasons to quit, but none you should entertain.

Resilience

Determination alone will not guarantee success. You will also have to be resilient. The faster you bounce back after each failure, disappointment, and setback, the more experience and information you will have to help you learn and improve. Not all lessons will be learned from books and observation. Learning in the field as you go takes a lot of effort and courage, but it is irreplaceable and priceless. Resiliency will help you learn those lessons much faster.

Patience

Plans need time to execute. Think of your plans like a seed or a newborn baby. When you plant a seed, it needs time to germinate and grow into the plant and tree it will be. Similar to the birth of a child, it takes years before a child becomes an adult. There is no difference between a plant and your plans. If you abandon your plans too early due to lack of patience, you could be walking away from a beautiful tree. It takes practice developing patience. A tip that can help you work on your patience is to do all you can when you can. When you do that, you rest easier knowing that you’ve done all that you are capable of.

TIP 6. GET HELP

No man is an island, and no one should try to take on the world on their own. Seek help. Don’t wait until you are bruised and battered before you reach out for assistance. Getting help is not a sign of weakness. There are some battles that you will have to fight on your own, but until then, get as much help as possible. Michael Jordan is considered the Greatest Of All Time (G.O.A.T.), and he had help. Like basketball, life is a team sport. You are the captain of your life, and no one truly knows what is going on in another person’s head. We have to be accountable to ourselves and take full responsibility for our actions. Seeking help can make an impossible goal possible, but seeking help can also be fun. Having a team, a partner, or someone to share your stories with can make pursuing your goals more enjoyable. Don’t let pride or anything else hold you back from getting help.

TIP 7. BE INTROSPECTIVE

The Canadian rapper Drake once said, “Know yourself.” In order to set detailed financial goals, create a plan, execute a plan, and achieve your goals, you must be introspective. You must be reflective in knowing your strengths and weaknesses. You must be a student of yourself. If you’re not investing time in learning and understanding yourself, there is little hope in self-improvement. Your goals will have no meaning, and your plans will be frail. The time you invest in understanding yourself will save you a lot of time in the long run.

There are many ways you can go about learning about yourself. You can take a personality test. You can ask friends and family to describe you from their perspective. You can keep a journal of your strengths and weaknesses. Also understand that who we are today may not be who we are tomorrow. Major life events such as the death of a loved one or the birth of a child can change us profoundly.

TIP 8. DON’T BE HARD ON YOURSELF

Being hard on yourself rarely helps in the pursuit of anything. We are humans, and we are far from being perfect. But there is beauty in imperfection and flaws. If everything is perfect and flawless, wouldn’t that make life bland? When we are hard on ourselves and overly critical, we create a negative inner voice that only depletes our self-esteem with every failure and mistake we make. This can take a toll to the point that it inhibits us from learning from failures and takes away the joy from any success we have. Instead of celebrating success, we nitpick the quality of it. Achieving a goal that is supposed to bring joy now brings anguish.

Instead of being hard on yourself and overly critical, practice talking to yourself kindly. Take responsibility, hold yourself accountable, but at the same time encourage yourself and be understanding of the struggles you are facing. If we are true to ourselves, we know exactly how hard we are working. There is no point in negative self-talk or kicking yourself when you’re down. You should be your best friend. Best friends are understanding, encouraging, and kind, and at the same time honest and firm with us. 

TIP 9. HAVE FUN

This is your life on your terms. You make the rules. Have fun pursuing your financial ambitions. There is a misconception that a person must be stoic if they are serious about their goals. This is far from the truth. Taking things too seriously only makes a person rigid and inhibits their ability to be flexible. We need to get rid of the belief that a person can’t have fun while they are undertaking the most important of duties.

CAUTIONS & CONCERNS

Deadlines

Deadlines are important but can become a pitfall if not made correctly. Some people create too short of a deadline, which is impossible to make. Others set deadlines longer than what is necessary for a specific goal and end up wasting time. It will take time, practice, and experience before you get better at setting precise deadlines. Keep in mind if you do all you can in a day, you shouldn’t obsess over not making your deadlines. Be flexible.

Distractions

Achieving any difficult financial goal requires a high level of concentration. Be aware of your personal distractions and eliminate them if they are hindering you. Frivolous distractions are not worth the expense of not achieving your financial goals.

Environment

Be mindful of your environment and the people you are around. With the improvement of technology, anyone can do anything just about anywhere as long as they have access to the internet. Yet not all environments will provide all the tools you may need to accomplish a particular goal. Also be mindful of the people you surround yourself with. It is very difficult to achieve certain ambitions if your circle of friends is not conducive to your goals.

Physical Health

Our physical health plays a major role in our quality of life. Don’t be surprised if your physical health is holding you back from achieving your financial goals. If you feel good, you’re more likely to do good. Making a change in this part of your life can have an exponential impact on your wealth.

FINAL THOUGHT

These tips can help improve your odds of achieving your financial goals. Many of you may already utilize some of these tips and need to work on others. Life is a marathon; if you continue to engage wholeheartedly in it, you will have no choice but to improve. These tips not only apply to financial ambitions but also to any personal or group goals you may have. Have fun with these tips, experiment, and discard any plans, tips, or goals that do not serve your purpose.