My Goals For This Year And Beyond

Everyone Needs Goals

As I discussed in my last post, the need for setting goals is extremely important to achievement and success in any area of life. Whether you are trying to get your finances in order, get in shape or make a career change, without a specific, written goal, it’s too easy to fall off track and lose motivation. Our goals remind us everyday of what we are aiming for and give us a measureable result for which we need to reach.

When I decided that I was going to take 6 months off from work to spend traveling on a mini-retirement, I knew that I had a certain amount of money that I needed to save and only 3 years to prepare. This allowed me to make a plan where I saved 30-40% of my income each month, and it kept me motivated to stay on track even when things got difficult. There were times when unexpected bills came up, or friends asked me to go on expensive trips, and I had to say no in order to stay on track with my savings.

The goal of leaving my job in May 2018 with a $100k net worth was written down in my phone and a reminder popped up each day so that I would read it. Whenever I felt like I couldn’t do it or that maybe I should delay the trip, I saw that goal written in my phone, and it gave me the motivation I needed.

We all need goals. Without them we just float through life doing what’s comfortable. And in my opinion, that’s no way to live. Life is about growth and accomplishment, and helping others along the way in their journey.

So here I am, ready to put forth my new goals for growth and achievement now that I’ve entered a new stage in life. And I hope that by sharing these goals, I’ll help you, the readers, with your goals as well.

 

My Goals For This Year

Firstly, here’s a glimpse into my goals, and how I break them down. I have short-term goals (less than a year) and long-term goals (over a year away), so in the past year I’ve worked on all of these but was primarily focused on reaching the short-term goals.

Short-Term Goals from last year:

• Hit $100k net worth and take 6 months off from work to travel the world by May 2018 (Check!)
• Lift weights 3 days a week and reach strength goals (Made progress but not fully achieved)
• Read 2-3 books per month (Check!)
• Write 1-2 blog posts per week and grow the NYPFGuy audience (Check! but didn’t quite hit audience growth target)
• Experiment with a few different eating/nutrition styles: vegan, vegetarian, paleo, intermittent fasting (Check!)

 

So overall, I think I did pretty well! It was definitely a learning and growth year for me, so I focused more on what I learned than the size of the goals I achieved. The progress I made developing my professional, personal and health skills was huge so I’m proud of what I did, but this next year is going to be about taking it to the next level. So here’s my new short-term goals for the next year…..

 

Short-Term Goals for this year:

• Keep net worth above $80k in 2018 and back to $100k by May 2019
• Have an online business that generates $1,000+/month in revenue by June 2019
• Grow the NYPFGuy email list to 1k subscribers by July 2019 (my most ambitious goal!)
• When I finish my mini-retirement, go back to full-time work to a job for which I’m proud of and have genuine interest. I enjoy sales and working with people to solve problems. Also, I’m interested in the renewable energy or green-building industries. This is where I plan to look for work. Accepted job offer by March 2019

 

And here are my long-term goals that are either a few years out or items that I want to continue doing for the forseeable future.

 

Long-Term Goals:

• Operate a business that has $1+ million in revenue by age 33 (February 2020)
• Start a personal finance coaching service through NYPFGuy that has 1000 customers by age 30
• Become financially independent by age 33, which means I don’t rely on income from any job (5 years from now!)
• Complete an olympic-distance triathalon (I did a sprint distance in 2015) by age 30
• Continue lifting weights 3 days per week and hit strength goals by age 30 (the specifics of this are pretty boring for most people. Send me a message if you want to discuss more!)
• Continue reading 2+ books per month
• Eat a paleo diet 6 days per week and continue intermittent fasting for health

 

How I Plan on Achieving Them

Now setting goals is one thing. It gets us excited about the future and ready to tackle challenges head on. But what happens 2 months down the line when the excitement fades and the difficulty of daily effort starts to weigh on us?

That’s when our habits take over and keep us going. Daily habits over a continued period of time enable us to reach our goals.

I’ve spent the last few years solidifying my daily habits in order to put my efforts for reaching my goals on somewhat of an autopilot. So on days when I’m feeling down or tired, my habits will carry me forward even if my brain is telling me to take the day off.

Here are a the habits that I’ve put in place that will help me reach each of the goals from above:

• For maintaining and building my net worth, I’ll continue my habit of tracking my spending and using my simple strategy to save money each month.
• To operate an online business, I will invest in myself by learning new skills and applying them on a regular basis until I reach my revenue goal (Thinking about trying Millennial Money Man’s Facebook Side Hustle Course). If it doesn’t work the first time, tweak the process and try again. Failure at first is probably inevitable, but by training a positive mindset through reading and podcasts, it won’t deter me.
• To grow the NYPFGuy audience, I’ll continue with my daily writing (first thing I do on my computer in the morning) and social media habit, and then I will also continue to grow my presence in the online community through guest blog posts. Also, I will be looking at advertising this year.
• Going back to full time work will require a daily habit of submitting job applications, networking with influencers and working on a positive mindset during the 2-3 month search that most jobs require.

 

For long-term goals, this is how I’ll move forward:

• Operating a seven-figure business is similar to a five-figure business, but just on a bigger scale
• Most long-term business and financial goals require similar habits to short-term goals, but the perseverance and discipline are needed over decades instead of months or years.
• To reach my strength goals, I have a program I follow called Kinobody, which requires I keep the habit of lifting weights 3 days per week, and then tweaking the process every month of two. Yet again, discipline and patience are key!
• My nutrition goal of eating paleo will require I practice the habit of doing my food shopping every few days and cooking 90% of my meals at home. I leave one day per week to eat whatever I want as a way to give myself a mental reward to continue the other 6 days.
• I have a daily reading habit of at least 30 minutes per day. Sometimes in the afternoon if I am just relaxing at home and always before I go to bed as it helps me wind down and prepare for bed.

As you can see, the habits to reaching all of my goals are nothing fancy. Currently, it just involves practicing a few daily or weekly habits, such as writing, reading, weightlifting, eating healthy, learning new skills, etc. And more importantly, to achieve our goals, we need to create a mindset that cultivates discipline and perseverance, because inevitably there will be failures and setbacks along the way.

The people who are typically most successful in life are those who are not the smartest or the luckiest, but those who have the grit to keep going when others quit.

Hopefully me sharing with you my goals will give you the inspiration to set your own goals for the year. Please feel free to share with me your thoughts and struggles as we go through the year working on our goals together. The more accountability there is in the process, the more likely we are to stick with it and reach the finish line!

 

If you are struggling to really understand what you really want and what goals to set, check out my Free 5-Day Money Course, which can help you start to think in terms of what you truly want. Because once you know what you want out of life, it becomes pretty easy to know what to do with your money.

 

 

 

Question: What are your goals for the next year, financial or otherwise? How do you plan on reaching them?

Leave a comment or send me an email!

NYPFGuy