The 4 Key Steps to Achieve Your Goals

New year’s resolutions can be tricky. We’re all for setting goals and making changes in your life, but too many people develop lofty resolutions at the beginning of the new year that they never follow through on.

If you really want to make lasting changes in your lifestyle, it takes more than just lip service. And when it comes to finances, achieving concrete monetary goals requires real discipline and dedication.

Just like losing 50 pounds, big money aspirations such as saving money, paying off debts, or buying a new house don’t happen overnight. They require a solid action plan to really make things happen.

But don’t worry, we’ve got you covered! Whatever your financial goals are, in this two-part blog series, we share some important insights to help you identify realistic goals and put a plan in place to actually achieve them.

Let’s start with the 4 steps that we’ve found are key to achieving your goals. With these hurdles cleared, the results will come far more effortlessly.

1. Dream Big. Start Small. Start Now.

The road to financial success is paved with smaller, more achievable goals. Once you accomplish them, it boosts your confidence and builds momentum. While it may seem like you’re taking the longer route to success, the odds of actually getting there are more in your favor with this approach versus striving for bigger results from the beginning.

Think about it. Big dreams are considered big because they’re out of reach (but not impossible)—at least for now.

That’s why we’ve found that figuring out what you can do in the short term will help put you in a better financial position over time. Maybe you need to curb your spending so that you can save more. You can achieve this smaller goal more quickly, and it will make the once impossible seem possible. Chances are that these small successes will give you the motivation to keep going.

2. Be Specific

“I want to be rich” is too vague a financial goal and will set you up for failure. A clearer objective would be “I want to own a house.” With that house in mind, you can now take specific steps that will get you there, such as renting a cheaper apartment in order to save more money.

Visualizing the house you want will also associate a mental picture with the goal, which helps provide motivation and focus.

3. Identify Potential Roadblocks and Create a Plan

Roadblocks to achieving your financial goals can be mental, such as a negative attitude or low self-esteem; or they could be more tangible—for example, perhaps there’s no chance for a promotion at your current job.

Either way, once you’re able to identify the problem, you can develop realistic tactics to overcome them, such as surrounding yourself with positive-thinking people or finding alternative sources of income.

4. Monitor Your Progress

Whether this is something you want to do on your own or with an “accountability buddy,” routinely monitoring your progress will provide proof that you’re doing something right and should keep going.

At the same time, assessing what went wrong will help you restrategize and refocus. Since finances tend to have pretty sophisticated metrics associated with them, tracking your progress by the dollar should be relatively simple—and it will help you identify weak areas in need of improvement.

Keep Moving Forward

The great thing about achieving smaller goals more quickly is that it builds powerful momentum toward your larger financial goal. So trust the process and keep moving forward, even on days when nothing seems to be going right.

Next week, we’ll take a look at some of the most popular—and effective—financial goals to help improve your financial health.