You can Have Anything You want.
With Just A little Planning
Most of the people want certain things out of their life. What one wants may vary to a great extent from person to person. What you want may be material things like a house, car money, or it may be goals such as being happier and at peace, improving health, being able to spend quality time with loved ones.
A very small percentage of people actually think of these in terms of concrete goals, let alone writing it down. Mostly it is just something they want.
However, if you really want what you say you want you better start looking at them as concrete goals and start treating them as such.
Be Very Clear about what you want
It is not enough to say that you want a new car, or a big house. It is very important to have all the details. Don’t just sketch the outline; fill in the colors and fine details in your picture.
Have a very clear picture in your mind. What make and model car you want, what color, what trim? Imagine that new car smell when you drive it, how will it feel? The steering the wind in your hair when you drive it with windows down.
Similarly whatever it is that you want, say for example a house. See yourself spending time with your loved ones, doing your favorite activity. How will it feel?
Write It down
Taking our example of the car, figure out how much it will cost you. Do you want to buy it outright or get loan? How are you going to come up with the money or the down payment? Work out the numbers and set a realistic time for you to achieve it.
Write down in a journal or in a diary or even on your phone what your goal and a date before which you will reach your goal. If you are good at it, draw a picture.
Say, you need $2000 for down payment and your loan payment will be $300 a month. Start saving $300 a month for the down payment, so you can get the car in 7 months. This will not only help you save for the down payment but also will help you understand your financial situation if you have to make a $300 a month payment for next 5 years. You will get a feel for if it is doable and sustainable, before you commit to long term.
Go to work on it
Once you have a plan in place, start working on it. Give it all you have got to make it possible. Track your progress. Automate the process if possible; like in our example above, you can set your bank account to automatically transfer a certain amount say $150 twice a month.
Regularly look at the progress you have made towards your goal and take pride in it. Keep at it making steady progress.
Keep yourself motivated by visualizing your goal already achieved and how you would feel. Find a picture of the car you want and put it where you will see it regularly several times a day.
Now, you have a plan in place, you need to keep a few things in mind. Don’t work on too many goals at a time. Focus on two or three goals at a time. If you have many goals in the mind choose the ones which matter most to you or the ones which are most likely to have the biggest impact on your life.
You may want to focus on getting a better job or making more money first before a goal to buy a bigger house. Also, when you focus on a few goals you don’t run the chance of spreading yourself too thin, getting burned out and thereby not able to achieve any of the goals.
There will always be temptations. Say, you are saving money for the down payment for the car, and your friends call and ask you to join them on a weekend trip. That means you will not be able to save the money that month thereby delaying your goal.
Think before you decide, what is more important to you weigh your options. Maybe that trip is a once in the lifetime opportunity than it is okay. But, if it is something your friends do on regular basis it can wait.
Also, keep in mind, once you make an exception it does not take much time for you to make another exception and then the trend continues.
It is all about choices, focus on what you truly want and cut other things out, at least till the time you have achieved your important goal.
So, if you follow the three step approach and cut out the temptations and avoid pit falls whatever you want can be yours. You just have to want it badly enough and willing to work for it till you get it.