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Do you ever feel like you are just coasting through life without any clear direction? Do you have big dreams, but don’t know how to make them reality? Are you struggling with your home, finances, job, or relationships and can’t figure out how to get some traction? Unfortunately there is not one clear answer to fix this problem. However, there is one thing that is sure to help you in your quest…
Set goals.
Setting goals can dramatically change your life. It can give you direction. It can declutter your mind. It can give you momentum to move forward. Setting goals can turn your dreams into reality.
I’ve experienced first hand the power of goal setting and how it can truly impact my life in such a positive way. I didn’t quite understand the power of goal setting until about 4 years ago. I was a stay-at-home mom for the first time and my first son was about 5 months old. My husband and I had plans for me to stay home for the first year, but had every intention of me going back to work the following year. I was a teacher and my previous job was grant funded. However, the grant expired at the end of the previous school year. I gave birth to my son in July so it just made sense for me to stay home that first year.
But things changed drastically after I gave birth that summer. I just couldn’t imagine ever going back to work and taking my son to daycare. I wanted to be home with him, but our finances were so tight, we didn’t think it was possible.
That fall, my husband and I began to really set goals that would eventually change our lives completely. We knew we wanted me to stay home with our son. We knew that my husband wanted to change his career path because he was not happy at his job. We also knew that we wanted to move back closer to family if possible.
All three of these things required a lot of planning, a lot of sacrifice, a lot of hard work, and, most importantly, a lot of prayer. They were big dreams, but we knew that if we worked together we could accomplish them.
Over the next 18 months, I found a part-time job at my church teaching preschool. It was the best of both worlds. I was able to do what I love and make a small income while still bringing my son with me to work, but being at home with him the majority of the time. My husband eventually settled on a new career path and we were able to move back within 45 minutes of both of our families. It took a lot of prayer and a lot of goal setting, but we finally accomplished what we set out to do.
Being active and engaged goal setters has been key in helping us get to where we are in our lives today. We love setting goals and these 6 reasons are definitely at the top of our list.
1. Provides a Finish Line
I’m a planner at heart so having an end goal is always something that helps me when I’m working towards something. Setting goals gives me that finish line I’m looking for. This way, I can begin to work backwards.
For example, if I know that in 3 years I need to save $6000 to replace our roof, I might easily become overwhelmed. However, if I break that down slowly, I know that I need to save $2000 each year, or $167 each month, or just $83 each paycheck. That takes the daunting $6000 goal and makes it more doable. I know that with a little hard work, I can work $83 into my budget.
Setting tangible goals gives you that finish line that can help you to achieve them.
2. Gives You Momentum
You will begin to pick up momentum once your goals are set. By giving yourself that finish line or goal date, you will become more motivated. Each time you get one step closer to your goal, it will help to propel you forward in your journey.
When we would become discouraged when trying to accomplish our goal of moving, we would just look back at what all we had accomplished so far. It was motivating to see what we had accomplished. This would always give us the encouragement we needed to keep moving forward.
3. Provides a Clear Focus
You are no longer out there living your life aimlessly. You have direction and you know the steps to take to make your dreams happen. Setting clear goals can also help to remove the unwanted clutter from your life. If it’s not something that is bringing you closer to your ultimate goal, then it may not be worth your time, effort, or finances.
When we were saving money for our move, we had a clear focus of where that money was going to be spent. We didn’t look at our bank account and see a larger number and think about all of the fun we could do with it. Our ultimate goal of moving created a clear focus.
4. Shows You the Stepping Stones
Goals not only provide you with a clear focus, but also helps you to break them down into smaller bite-sized pieces. You can take your big goal and create smaller stepping stones that will get you there.
If you are wandering through life without any clear direction or goals, you don’t have any way to measure your success. However, if you have clear and tangible goals and can surround your life by doing things that help to make that goal a reality, then you can easily measure your successes and failures.
Our large goals of moving, changing jobs, and being financially stable for me to be a stay at home mom helped us to see the stepping stones we needed to take to get there. We knew we first needed to figure out a career path for my husband. Then we needed to apply for positions. We needed to make sure the job would provide for our family financially. All of these were stepping stones that were revealed to us once we created our big goals.
5. Helps with Accountability
By setting goals, you create instant accountability. You are no longer talking about what you want to accomplish, but rather creating a game plan to get there. You must begin to take action to move towards your goal or it will be clearly visible that you aren’t making progress.
When you stay accountable towards the goals you have set for yourself, you are really just staying accountable towards your dreams!
6. Turns Your Dreams into Reality
Setting goals takes a big dream and turns it into reality with a little hard work and dedication. Goals provide the plan you need to make those big dreams come true. I don’t know about you, but if goal setting can make my big, seemingly unrealistic goals come true, I’m all in!
Obviously, writing down your goals will not make a fairy godmother appear with a white horse and carriage. It’s going to take a lot of planning and hard work to get where you want to go.
That’s where Crystal Paine from www.moneysavingmom.com comes in! She is the queen of goal setting and someone who encouraged me to become a goal setter all those years ago. Crystal and her husband Jesse have created a course called Make Over Your Year that will not only help you improve your year, but your life!
Make Over Your Year is a comprehensive 4-week online course that will help you create a doable action plan to turn your big dreams into reality.
If you have big dreams and don’t know how to make them your reality, I encourage you to check out Crystal’s Make Over Your Year course! This weekend it’s on sale for half price at just $25! Plus, Crystal gives a 100% guarantee so if you aren’t satisfied with the course, she will refund your money. No questions asked. What do you have to lose?
Now, 4.5 years later, I’m still able to stay home with my now 2 boys, thanks in part to this blog. As much as I love teaching, I love being a mom more so I pray that I’m able to continue to stay home with my children as long as possible. As for our goals, we are still setting big goals for our family. And we’ve learned even more along the way. Thanks in much part to Crystal Paine’s Make Over Your Year course, we have become even more dedicated to goal setting. We have even bigger dreams that we are working towards and we know all of the steps we need to take to make them reality thanks to Crystal and Jesse Paine and their wonderful course!