Goal Setting: Start from the Finish Line
When I was in high school, I was on the cross country team. I joined the team after I was cut from field hockey try-outs and cross country was the only sport left that was open to everyone. That being said, I was always pretty athletic and running a 5k every week wasn’t a big deal for me. I would begin every race at the starting line, and about 25-30 minutes later, I arrived at the finish line. Race over.
However, after I graduated from college, I started getting more serious about distant running. I wanted to do longer distances, like a 10-miler or a half-marathon. But these races required more training than my high school 5k races and I wasn’t sure where to begin.
I started by increasing my runs every week and just seeing how long I could run for. I figured, once I could run a longer distance, I would know that I was in good shape and could sign up for a half-marathon. That plan failed. It was hard to run for 1+ hour for no real reason. I realized that without a specific goal in mind, I would never get myself to do the training I needed. So, I signed up for a half-marathon. It was 5 months away, which gave me enough time to figure out how to run 13.1 miles. Since I knew the date of the race, and the distance I would have to run, I put that deadline on my calendar. Then I started working backwards.
In 5 months I would need to be able to run 13.1 miles. I started from 13.1 miles, and worked backwards week by week until I got to today. Finally, I had a plan in front of me. Now, I didn’t need to guess anymore. I knew that by following my plan every week, I would slowly be getting closer to my goal. When it was time for the half-marathon, I ran the whole race.
Now, during this time I also started working my first full time job. I worked hard and didn’t get paid much. But I would save as much money as I could, and when I wanted to spend it on something (like a vacation) I would look at the amount of money I had and decide what kind of vacation I could take. “Well, I can do a weekend camping trip, but I can’t spend a week at the beach”.
I started from the beginning - “I have $500” - and decided what kinds of trips I could take with that amount of money. The camping trips were fun, but what I wanted was to spend a week swimming in the ocean and reading a good book on the beach. I just wasn’t saving enough money to do it, so I pushed those ideas aside as “out of my league”.
The problem with this mindset is that it made me dream small; what’s more is that this attitude melted over into other aspects of my life. “Start a small business? Nope, I don’t have that kind of money,” which translated into “I don’t think I’m the kind of person that can start a small business”. Thinking that these dreams could never come to fruition made me feel small and hopeless. When I looked forward on the rest of my life, I thought “Well, I guess this is all I can do with my life. Why bother wanting more?”
It was then that I realized I needed to change my attitude. Surely, my life couldn’t be so despairing that there were no new adventures or ambitions yet to come. What if I could be a person that spent a week at the beach?
The question was, how?
First, I knew what wasn’t working. Starting from the beginning, saving an undefined “as much as I can” amount every month was not working. Waiting until 2 weeks before a vacation to start planning the vacation wasn’t working either. By that time, I didn’t have many options.
I remembered when I was training for my half-marathon. Starting from the beginning and blindly moving forward without knowing where I was going didn’t work. I had to start from the finish line: Go to the beach.
For me to go to the beach in 4 months time, I needed about $2,000. ($2,000/4 = $500). I needed to save $500 each month for 4 months to go to the beach. $500 felt much more attainable than $2,000. I never had $2,000 sitting in my bank account, but after a couple of months of saving for my goal, I would.
Let’s try another example. Say you want to take your family of 4 to Disney World next summer; it’s going to cost about $10,000 and today you have $0.
You have three options:
Don’t go to Disney World because it’s too expensive and you’ll never be able to afford it.
Put the whole trip on your credit card. Assuming the interest rate is at least 18%, you’ll still be paying for the trip long after your kids are grown.
Save $10,000 and pay for the trip outright (hint: this is the correct option).
So you have 5 months to save $10,000. ($10,000/5 = $2,000 per month). You need to save $2,000 every month for the next 5 months to pay for this trip. If that sounds like a crazy amount of money to save every month, it’s because you can’t afford it (yet)! Do not be fooled into thinking you can afford something just by charging it to your credit card. That’s the easy solution, but not the smart solution.
Credit cards are a great tool, but should never be used to buy things you can’t afford.
So, if you need $10,000 (and charging it to your credit card is not an option), you can do two things.
Postpone your trip to next summer. Give yourself an extra 12 months to save the money. $10,000/17 months = $588 per month. Almost $600 per month is still a lot of money, but much more reasonable than $2,000.
If the trip absolutely must happen this summer, start hustling. You have your goal: $2,000 per month. Pick up extra shifts, dog walk, babysit, sell clothes you don’t wear, find a job you can do online, like teaching English. Believe me that you’re going to feel amazing when you hit that goal!
If you come up with your number and feel like, “There’s no WAY I can save that much”, lean into that feeling. It’s stressful and you’re going to feel pressure. But rather than throwing up your hands and saying, “What’s the point?” ask yourself, “What can I do to make this money?” “How can I afford this thing?” Use that discomfort to motivate yourself for more.
This mindset shift is going to be very hard at first. Changing someone’s mind (especially your own) is extremely difficult. You’ll probably start making excuses to let yourself off the hook, “It’s not that big a deal if I charge it to my credit card” “I can’t make an extra $2,000 per month so why bother trying” “This blog writer doesn’t know what she’s talking about, because she doesn’t understand MY situation”. If you’re used to indulging yourself on anything you want through your credit card, and worrying about the consequences later, then setting future goals and delaying gratification is going to be really hard, at first. But, practice makes perfect and the more you practice, the easier it will be. Do you know what the alternative is? An entire lifetime of debt. Do you really want to die with $100,000 of credit card debt?
By starting at the finish line, you know exactly where you’re going. I’m going to the beach! I can practically feel the sun on my back and the crab cake sandwich I’m going to eat when I get there. The idea of that finish line in my mind motivates me even more to keep moving forward.
Action item:
Take a moment and write down your goal. I don’t care what it is - the crazier the better. It could be something like - paying down $20,000 of debt, paying off a car loan, paying for a child’s college. Or it could be something more fun like a wine tour in the south of France, season tickets for your favorite sports team, a new TV, or tickets to a concert (let’s be honest, paying off a car loan does not have the same appeal as drinking wine in France). I want you to write what it is, when you’ll do it, and how much money you think you’ll need (you can finalize later, just give a ballpark figure). If you start to get anxious about the “How much money” section, try extending the “When” section. Give yourself more time to get to the goal. But I strongly encourage you to NOT CHANGE THE GOAL. How much money you need and when you can do it might have to change, but your goal should not. It’s your goal, your dream. Fight for it.
Goal:
When:
How much money:
Your life may not be perfect, but it is imperfectly yours. The only way to live it is your way.
