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Focus Your Efforts, Realize Your Financial Goals

Every day we face a barrage of stimuli from the world around us. If we are not careful, these distractions can keep us from reaching our goals. When you focus equally on essential as well as non-essential tasks, nothing gets done.

Think of it like a race car team preparing a car before an important race. There are countless tasks that could be done in the limited hours beforehand but ultimately the only thing that matters is doing the tasks necessary to get the car across the finish line.

When it comes to steering your money and finances in the right direction, make time to decide which vital functions you must address right now to make improvements this year.  These vital factors are your most obvious or urgent needs. For example, paying down credit card debt, student loans, car loan, creating a budget, building a savings account, or starting investing could be one of your top three financial priorities.


Begin to focus all your effort on improving these three areas of need. Your success will be dependent on how much discipline, creativity and resources you commit to these top three goals while not being distracted by things that matter the least.

After all, chasing after too many goals will leave you exhausted with undesirable results. Confucius said, “He who chases two rabbits catches none.” Whether the super-achievers of today read Confucius or not, they exemplify this saying. For example, Warren Buffett advises that we create a list of our goals, narrow it down to the top three that could really change our lives, and then throw away the rest. Similarly, Richard Branson has been known to turn down attending high-profile events in order to focus exclusively on his three key strategic initiatives.

If you have too many priorities you become paralyzed. This will cause you to feel overwhelmed. When this happens no action is taken. As a result, you continue to drift along the same course.

Instead, be like Buffett or Branson and narrow your financial priorities down to three big goals that, if reached, would make your financial life better than ever. Then identify the key behaviors you need to do every day to support those goals and track your progress regularly to keep yourself on course.


You are only a few key habits away from creating a considerable financial transformation for the better. Use the following steps to identify the habits necessary to increase your chances of realizing your top three financial goals.

Step 1: Identify

Narrow your areas of focused improvement. Focus on the acts that are the most vital to the achievement of your big three goals. For instance, start sticking to a budget which will create a cash surplus that in turn helps you pay down debt. This process involves the habits of budgeting and saving which can be used to realize the goal of paying down your debt.  


Step 2: Invest

Jim Rohn said “If you want to have more, you have to become more. You have to grow into your goals.” Seek out advice through reading financial blogs and books, attending webinars and seminars, and practicing what you learn. You don’t succeed just by learning. You have to study and then do.

Step 3: Rinse and Repeat

Find something that works for you and keep doing it until your goal is reached. Then, use that process as a model for another goal.  

The realization of any goal has a few critical functions. With enough time and practice you can figure out what these habits are and bring your goals to life.

Give some thought to what your top three financial goals are for this year and use the spreadsheet below to get your ideas and goals documented. Carry this list around as a reminder of your top three financial goals and habits you need to develop in order to achieve them. Continue to learn along the way, assess your progress to keep yourself on course, and then apply the same skills toward another goal.


As always, if you have questions or comments, feel free to send me a message. Thanks for reading.


John

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