When starting a business or taking control of your investments it is important to take complete control. What I mean by this is that you must have a larger, complete vision of your financial life and have the drive to follow through daily. It is not necessary to be a born control-freak (I think it can be learned) but in order to be successful, you have to want to have complete control over your time and have the ability to fill it with high return activities. Thus, not only must you be a control-freak, you must also be good at time discrimination.
In his book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey provides us with a grid used to classify activities as important/not important and urgent/not urgent. I suggest you invest the time analyzing your daily activities and classifying them in the appropriate categories.
| Urgent | Not Urgent | ||
| Important | 1 | 2 | |
| Not Important | 3 | 4 |
“Not the freaking grid again,” John said. “Didn’t we cover this last time?”
“Yes John, we did. But this is an important refresher.
“When you start a business or take over your investments, you no longer have a CEO or boss telling you what to do or how to do it. You are now driving the bus and although many view it as a nicety to be your own boss, I view it as absolutely crucial to develop the drive to take control.”
“I know I don’t even have to ask but how does one do this?” John asked.
“Through goal-setting,” I said.
“Great.”
Thus, you better have Bottom line: if you are not starting a business or taking control of your investments in order to have complete control, then you better figure out fast how to do it.
GOALS! – The Destination on the Roadmap
Our Goal Setting Format
“Three things to keep in mind John when setting goals. If you do not follow these then your goal is little more than wishful thinking.”
- Write it Down
- Be Specific
- Create Ten Yard Plays and Fifty Yard Plays
Write it Down
“Again, if it is not written then it is nothing more than wishful thinking. A goal is a dream with a deadline attached and the first step you need to take is to write it down and preferably to put it in a spot where you can see it when you wake, work and go to bed. Write it down.”
“I’ll tape it to my forehead,” John said.
Be Specific
“In order for the goal to have weight and specificity, it must have a deadline. Remember the second half our little clichéd saying … ‘A goal is a dream …’
“I know,” John said, “with a deadline attached. Very poignant. Do I get a gold star?”
“Not so fast John. Just remember, it is much better to say ‘I want to weigh 171 by May 1st 2015 at 7pm’ than it is to say, ‘I wish to be lighter.’ The first example is specific. I can jump on the scale at 7pm on May 1st, 2015 and see if in fact I hit the mark. The second example is very vague and just to throw out an old anachronism, ‘if you aim for nothing, you are sure to hit it.’”
Create Ten Yard Plays and Fifty Yard Plays
“Look, the importance of goals John is to challenge yourself to hit extremely rewarding heights, but at the same time you do not want to undercut yourself and erode your self-confidence. Thus, you want to set ten yard plays along-side fifty yard plays.”
“Great, now you are using sport-metaphors,” John said. “Can you give me some examples?”
“Sure. Let’s say you want to attain a net worth of one million dollars, a fifty yard pass. Now, if you are standing at square one with zero net worth and no means of income, can you reasonably expect to obtain this goal within a year John?”
“Well no, I suppose that would be highly unlikely and unrealistic,” he said.
“And would this be a ten yard play or a fifty yard play?”
“Why do you treat me like I am four years old?”
“That’s right John, it is a fifty yard play and although it might be a worthwhile goal, it is not realistic at this juncture.”
“Glad we got that settled.”
“I am not saying that one should not aspire for great wealth. As a matter of fact I would say that along with family, career, health, service and hobbies, finance should be at the top of your goal-setting categories. If you want a million dollars then by all means, go ahead and set a goal for a million dollars, just keep your expectations somewhat in a reality check. Perhaps it will take five years to reach it and that is fine. Remember, our goals should challenge us as well as build our confidence in moving forward. Set some ten yard plays such as ‘I will walk 30 minutes a day by March 31st, 2015 at 7pm.’ This will serve to boost your self-confidence. Also, on bigger goals, chunk them down into smaller parts as necessary to manage your progress. If you want a million dollars net worth and you are currently at $500,000, perhaps you need to set a goal to reach $750,000 first before moving on to the big goal.
“Also remember John, it takes five swings of an axe a day.”
“What the …”
“If you have to chop down a large tree in the woods, you can accomplish the task by taking five swings of an axe a day.”
“Why wouldn’t I take more than five a day?” John asked. “That seems like a bad use of time to only take five. And why wouldn’t I use a chainsaw?”
“That is not the point John. The point is this: if you have to accomplish a large task it is best to chunk down that task into smaller parts and then daily, do five things that will move you towards that goal. If you were traveling between two cities on foot and took five steps a day, you would eventually get there.”
“Unless you get hit by a bus,” John said. “Why wouldn’t you just take a car? First tree metaphors and now travel metaphors. You are full of them.”
“Again John you miss the point. Now, let us move on to the goal-setting toolbox.”
“I can’t wait.”
Our Goal-Setting Toolbox
· Keep it in a place you can see it.
· Read it 3x a day.
· Rewrite your goals a couple of times a day.
· Visualize as complete.
· Affirm it out loud – present tense.
· Track it – if you can measure it you can reach it.
· Victory log.
· Plan the night before.
· Vision boards.
· The question.
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