Goal Setting: Time to Get Started

In my soon to be released book, “The Millionaire Nurse“, I emphasize that goal setting is the number one attribute of successful people.  If you don’t have direction in your life, you will get lost-that part is simple.

While the idea of goal setting makes sense, doing so is  difficult.  Just as no smoking, eating too much, not exercising are obvious behaviors we need to change-doing so is hard.

So consider today your kick in the pants moment-write down your goals for next year-if you can’t stop what you are doing, right now, then set a time, right now, do it, don’t put it off.  You need time for thinking for yourself, then time with your spouse.

Now my recommendation is to develop and write  down your  family goals first.  Use those personal goals to help you develop your financial priorities.

For example, you are a two-year RN and would like to move up in management-that is your personal goal this year. To do so, you need a BSN.  So do you buy a new car, boat, or have plastic surgery this year?  NOOOOO.

What should your financial goals look like?

1. You put money aside this year for tuition-have a written number, do your homework.
2. You look at the amount of hours you will be able to work, while going to school, and be setting aside money to live on to supplement your smaller paycheck.
3. You cut back on your other expenses, less eating out, cut down from 200 channels to 45 (yea, I know, what a sacrifice-45 channels of nothing….)

I think you get the picture, you develop your goals for your life, then see how they affect your personal finances and adjust those goals accordingly.  The financial goals-say saving $1500 for tuition- then get broken down to monthly goals-say$125/month into your tuition savings account-not to be spent on a big-screen TV.

Now your goals and plans for life obviously can change-maybe you decide instead of being a nurse manager, you and your husband want to open a restaurant or other small business.  You use the same process-break the big picture into small action items, and scratch them off one at the time.

So, use the time between Christmas and New Years to do your goal setting.  A few of my goals for the year:

1. To grow this blog audience-(I have a number written down).
2. To sell 1,000 copies of my book (minimum).
3. To speak to at least two nursing groups per month in 2009.
4. Increase my giving-by 5%.

Now these are just preliminary goals, as I have to sit down with my bride of 29 years. We will fine-tune them to make them our’s (not mine or her’s) and I strongly suggest you do the same.

So let me know your goals for the new year, and if you have questions or suggestions for topics of discussion please make a comment.

If you need help with saving money, my free ebook, “Emergency Money Rescucitation” is available here, with a follow-up mini-course on suggestions on credit card management, banking, and other financial management tools.  My early Christmas present for you…..

Tags: goal setting, planning your finances, saving money

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 8th, 2009 at 2:32 pm and is filed under personal finance, Planned spending aka budget, Quality of Life, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.