How to Fail at Your Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal (And How to Set A Goal That You’ll Reach)

A few years ago, my husband and I set a huge, exciting goal: to save up $80,000 over the course of 3 years for a down payment.

Initially, our goal amped us up. We imagined the huge benefit that having an $80,000 down payment would eventually provide. We got to work budgeting, doing the math, and analyzing the numbers. Then, we started to actually transfer money into the down payment account as our money trickled in.

There was something wrong, though. The savings were anticlimactic. In the grand scheme of $80,000, putting away $100 here and $300 there seemed pretty pathetic.

After saving for two months for $2,000, we realized that we’d only reached 1/40th of the goal, and gave up.

Our big, hairy, audacious goal was a bust, and left us feeling like failures.

What Went Wrong?

We had this great goal. It met the “SMART” criteria – it was specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely.

We certainly could have saved up $80,000 over the course of three years. At $26,000 per year, it would have only been $13,000 each, which was attainable with our incomes and expenses at the time.

What went wrong was simply that the goal was too removed from what we were already doing.

We weren’t actually saving any money at the time toward a down payment. There were no small steps or changes in our habits to build us up. We wanted to go from saving nothing to saving over $1,000 per month each, every single month.

Small Wins = Big Gains

Instead of being a huge motivator, our big, hairy, audacious goal ended up being discouraging. We made very little progress over the few months after we set the goal, despite our best intentions. If we had set a goal like saving $300 per month each and then working our way up from there, we would have seen actual progress. That would have been motivating for us. We would have been able to move from $300 per month up to $500, then upward from there.

Our brains need to see small successes to remain motivated.

This is why Dave Ramsey’s Debt Snowball method of debt repayment actually works, whereas it’s rival, the method of paying off the highest interest debt first isn’t as successful.

If you are unfamiliar with Dave Ramsey’s Debt Snowball method, it looks like this:

• List all of your debts, from largest to smallest by amount owed
• Continue paying the minimum payment on all debts, and funnel all extra debt-repayment funds toward the smallest debt
• When the smallest debt is paid off, funnel all extra funds toward the second smallest debt, and so on.

This is quite controversial in the world of personal finance (lol, I know, right?). Many will argue that the debt that is repaid first should be the one with the highest interest rate, which makes sense from a savings point of view.

On paper, this is far better advice, but it doesn’t work. People don’t stick to it. Humans need the affirmation of small wins. It gives us the sense that we are making progress and gives us the confidence we need to continue. Ramsey’s Debt Snowball method takes care of the psychological need to have those small wins.

Is it smarter financially to pay off the debt with the highest interest rate? Sure! But in reality, the financially smarter route is the one that you’ll actually take.

When the first debt is paid off – maybe it’s a $250 credit card – it provides a sense of accomplishment. It’s a small win that makes you believe you can do what you set out to do.

Use Psychology to Set Goals You’ll Actually Reach

Knowing how our brains need small wins to stay motivated, actually make progress by avoiding logical thinking (our brains are NOT logical) and set goals that are almost easy to attain, especially when you are starting from scratch.

– Instead of setting a goal to pay off $40,000 worth of debt in one year, focus on getting to the first $5,000 of debt payoff. Once you reach $5,000 per month, focus on the next $7,000.

– Instead of setting your sights on losing 50 pounds, focus on losing just one. Once you lose one pound, increase your goal to two more.

– Instead of trying to figure out how to build a business that will bring in $5,000 per month, work on earning $500 per month.

With these goals, every time that you transfer $100 onto a credit card, go for a jog, or earn $75, you are making huge progress toward your goal. Reaching 25% of your goal feels far better than reaching 1% of your goal.

Sure, we probably could make progress faster than this – but we don’t. Instead of setting these goals and actually reaching them, we set these goals, realize we can’t run before we learn to walk, and give up completely.

In our situation, going from $0 to $5,000 saved would have been motivating. After we gave up, we spent a couple of months just letting the money accumulate and then set another goal of saving just $5,000. This was far more effective.

So it’s easy. Scale it back. Sure, keep your huge goal, write it down somewhere, and don’t forget about it. But to actually reach it, set yourself up for small wins. And don’t forget to change your environment.