Setting goals is essential for anyone who wants to achieve something meaningful, and knowing how to set monthly goals is step #1. Putting pen to paper (actual pen to paper) helps you to identify what you want to achieve and how you plan to get there. Something about writing ingrains it into your subconscious mind, making it more likely you will succeed.
By setting monthly goals, you create a roadmap that will help you focus your energy, time, and resources on achieving your big goal. Let’s dive deep into the process, including goals, why they are essential, how to create practical goals, and how to stay motivated to achieve them by setting smaller monthly goals.
Part 1: What are Monthly Goals, and why are they Important?
Goals are the things in life that you want to achieve within a specific timeframe. They are essential because they give you a sense of purpose and well-being. Humans are happiest when they are living just outside their comfort zone when they are being challenged. This causes growth.
Setting goals is essential because it gives you clear direction and lets you focus on what’s important. You can’t rely on motivation alone because nobody is always motivated. What you must do is create habits that align with your goals. Self-discipline wins out every time.
When you set goals, you can observe your progress. This form of positive reinforcement will keep you going when things inevitably get tough. You can achieve multiple small monthly goals, giving you a dopamine hit and encouraging you to do it again. Dopamine is the “feel good” chemical released by your brain and acts as a reward system. It makes you feel happy. Repetition then creates the habits you need to achieve your goal. You create your habits, and then your habits form you.
Part 2: How to Set Monthly Goals That Are Effective
Most people I’ve worked with don’t know how to develop practical goals. To make this very simple, I’m going to identify the two things you need to create a realistic goal:
Step 1: Identify what it is you want.
This is the first step in any endeavor. Identify. You have to know what you want before you can achieve it. It needs to be clear and concise, and it needs to be big enough that it scares you a little bit. It should challenge you and stretch you.
Step 2: Set a Deadline
For the big goal, which I recommend starting with, I like to set it three years out. Time moves very fast, and any longer of a time frame, you will be less likely to continue to want what you want now.
An example of a good goal would be: I will be an accredited investor by January 1, 2026. This goal has set guidelines you know you must meet to achieve it, and a time frame limits it.
Once you’ve set your big goal, you will want to continue the process by breaking it into smaller, bite-sized pieces. I’ve always asked myself and my team, “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.”
Break your Monthly Goal Down into Smaller Steps.
Once I have a three-year goal, I then identify the three things (more or less depending on what the goal is) I need to do in the next 12 months. Using the example above, I would focus on these three things:
- Increase my business’ profit margin to 20% YTD by December 31, 2023
- Hire a business coach
- Invest 50% of my expendable budget into stocks
I’ve identified what I must achieve this year to reach my 3-year goal. These are the things I build my habits around. However, these goals are still too big to get that monthly dopamine reward to keep us going. What I would do next is break these into monthly goals.
Monthly Goals
I use my 12-month goals to create my monthly goals by asking, “What do I need to achieve each month to meet this goal?”
My monthly goals would be to:
- Evaluate my books at the end of every month to make sure I’m at a 20% profit margin
- Meet with my business coach 2x monthly
- The first week of every month, I will have 50% of my expendable income automatically transferred to my stock account.
After doing these steps for a few consecutive months, they will become habits that will create your future.
Suggested Techniques to Help Motivation
- Visualize your success- Many successful people set aside a few minutes daily to visualize or meditate. Think through your goals and imagine yourself achieving them. It also helps to imagine yourself after you’ve achieved them. How do you feel? What does your life look like?
- Act as if you already have what you are trying to achieve- treat yourself as if you are the person you want to become. If you want to become an investor, tell people you are an investor. Maybe you haven’t made your first investment yet, but that’s okay. You are set in the direction to become an investor, taking the steps and learning the things. You already are an investor. If you’ve researched anything about it, you already know more than most people. You are an investor searching for a suitable investment.
- Surround yourself with people who encourage you- this is tremendously important. It would be best to surround yourself with people who allow you to believe you can achieve your goal. You also want to surround yourself with people who are where you want to be. They will open your mind to the possibilities and maybe even help you by telling you about their experiences. I’ve found that successful people love to see others succeed.
Sense of Empowerment Monthly Goals
Setting goals and allowing my subconscious mind to take over is empowering. Sometimes, I feel like I have two brains, and one is much brighter than I realize. Our subconscious brains are working constantly. It’s like having a personal assistant working 24/7 to solve your problems. Quite impressive. Once you learn to communicate with your subconscious, you will be amazed at all you can do.
I had a goal to quit my day job and be fully self-employed by age 30. At 29 ½, I thought there was no way this would happen. I’m still so far from making a full-time income from my side business. I was already moving the goalpost.
Something crazy happened, though. Somehow, my income increased dramatically in the six months of my 30th birthday. My subconscious mind went into hyperdrive after I reviewed my goals at 29 ½ and started creating opportunities for me to achieve them. And I did. I was able to quit my job by my 30th birthday, and I’ve never looked back.
I’m just a normal human being. If I can do it, so can you. I can help you reach your first $1 million by sharing my lessons and stories. Hopefully, by following me, you can avoid many of the costly and time-consuming mistakes I made. Please find me on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook!
We can do this together! Good luck on your journey to success.
