Everybody wants to be (fill in the blank with personal finance goal). But, most people never get to a place where they are (fill in the blank with personal finance goal). Why? If “everybody” wants to reach certain financial goals, why do so many people fail to do so? Certainly, opportunity, chance, and circumstance play their roles in determining success and failure. But, there are certain personal finance behaviors (and thus outcomes) that can be modified, and once modified, perfected. To achieve real change, you must be Mentally Prepared For Financial Success.

Before I began my journey towards debt freedom (and financial well-being) I created some goals. I created short-term goals, mid-term goals, and long-term goals. Before you go thinking about “numbers and dates”, not one of my goals included a dollar amounts. Instead, I focused on the life that I wanted to have. Here are some examples of my goals:

Short-Term (5 Years or Less):

I want to be debt free.

I want to worry less about money, and focus more of my time and energy on my wife and kids.

I want to have an emergency fund.

I want to have read multiple personal finance related books.

Mid-Term (5 to 20 Years):

I want to be able to send my kids to quality colleges.

I want to be able to enjoy my family, and buy a new home.

I want to be etc…..

You get the idea. I created several pages of goals, some specific, and some general. I also created a list of “super-goals”, goals that appeared to be WAY out of my reach. Again, I created GOALS, but I didn’t put numbers beside the goals. Why? Numbers can be intimidating. Intimidation fosters discouragement, which leads to frustration, and frustration leads to inaction.

After creating my GOALS, I then had to create a PLAN to reach each specific GOAL. This is where the numbers come in to play. Now that I have a plan for each goal, I can begin to Mentally Prepare myself for action.

Stay Tuned For Part 2!