If you can believe it, 2015 is almost 50% over already! Yowza!! When did that happen?
If you are anything like me, you set some lofty goals for the year: for your life, your finances, and everything else.
My goals list for 2015 included things like:
- Pay off $5,000 of debt (principal).
- Reach $1,500 of emergency fund savings.
- Attend FinCon15 and pay in cash.
- Paint my home office.
- Declutter some books.
- Limit my spending on clothes.
- Quit my full-time job by the end of the year.
Even with some pretty exciting, fun, and scary goals on that list, I still had a lot of other things in mind that I also wanted to accomplish in 2015.
Some of them are little things which is why they didn’t make it on the list, and others are things like have more time to spend with my family, friends, and pets, which is part of the motivation behind me accomplishing the goals on my 2015 list.
Personally, I think goals are great to have. They keep you motivated and focused on what matters, at least as long as you go about setting them correctly.
Sometimes goals have to be changed before they are met. For instance, last year I had to reduce one of my goals because there was NO WAY I was going to make it, which made it depressing instead of motivating. This year I had to scratch one off the list. (If you can’t guess which one, you must be living under a rock, haha.) After only about 3 months I had already completely failed at my goal of limiting my clothes spending for the year to a certain threshold. But ever since I scratched it off the list, I’ve actually done better at limiting my spending on fashion.
Anyway, the point of this post isn’t to argue about if you should set goals or not (which you totally should in my opinion) but instead to point out that we are nearly 50% through the year. This means you should be nearly 50% through your goals.
If you are way too far ahead or behind of the 50% mark, now is the time to re-asses not only your goals by why you set them in the first place.
When you asses your goals and progress and you find you are way off, here’s what you should do:
Too Far Ahead
If you happen to be one of the lucky people who are 75-80% or more done with your yearly goals, you should take this opportunity to make them bigger.
For instance, this year I’m going to crush my debt payoff goal. Since I already know this, I’m going to re-set my goal to a higher amount so I’ll still be challenge and have to stretch to reach my new goal by the end of the year. This will keep me motivated and working hard.
Too Far Behind
Womp womp womp! Sometimes we fall too far behind in our goals. That’s ok, it happens. Instead of wallowing and feeling bad about it, use this opportunity to figure out why you are behind.
If the only reason you are behind is because of an un-foreseen circumstance or because you set your goal too high, simply adjust it down to just outside of reach and keep going!
But if you find that you are no longer motivated to reach your goal because you no longer care about it, you should abandon it now. There’s no sense in striving for something you don’t care about. Instead you should set a new goal in it’s place to reflect your new direction.
No matter where you are at when you asses your 2015 progress vs. your 2015 goals, there’s still time to rectify the situation and make great progress the rest of the year.
Where are you at with your 2015 goals?
I don’t believe I am at 50% but I not giving up in hopes that by the end of this year I can look back and feel good about my accomplishments. I can see how some people would throw in the towel this time of the year, so it’s great that you’re taking the time to remind us that nothing wrong with still working on those New Resolution Goals.
I am 50% or more done with some goals, but others I’m a bit behind on. I am not giving up either Petrish! 🙂
I didn’t set direct goals except for finance net worth goals, and I will probably do my calculations tomorrow or Monday (I usually do them around the 7th of the month), which will tell me whether or not I’m on track. I’m pretty sure I am, which is nice!
That’s great! I’m pretty close to on-track overall, but a little behind and ahead on different specific goals.
Good point about being too far ahead on goals and needing to think bigger. I didn’t set many concrete goals this year and I wish I would have. Just big personal finance goals that I wanted to accomplish as soon as possible, and some other goals that popped up throughout the year, like flossing more and cutting back on Dr Pepper. I guess it’s not too late to set a few!
It’s never too late to set some goals. There’s definitely no written rule that says you have to start your goals on Jan 1st every year, or end them on December 31. 🙂
I hit the 50% mark on my one major goal recently – so I’m halfway done halfway through the year! Yay! But, it’s the only real goal on my list. I’m neglecting everything else to make sure it receives enough attention to actually come to fruition. There’s not a lot of balance. On one hand, I’m super proud. On the other, I know what it’s costing me in more than just money.
I totally get what you are saying here, I am making a lot of sacrifices right not too as I work to get my business off the ground (while still working a full-time job). I hope you meet your goal!
Not yet. And now, I feel the pressure because I believe I am at less than 40% of my set goal for this 2015. Six months are now over. Despite that, I am still hopeful that I can still achieve it during the rest of months left.
I hope you can too Jayson! I’m at 50% (or more) on some goals, but I’m behind on some others.