Standard goal setting advice involves writing goals down, creating accountability, and tracking progress. And I’ve got no arguments that, if you can stay motivated and stick with this plan, you will successfully reach your goals. But what if this hasn’t worked for you?
Maybe you’ve tried everything and don’t make any huge strides. Maybe your motivation wanes after a month or two. Maybe you forget and fall back into your old habits.
Many of us fall into the trap of thinking we just need to “try harder” when something isn’t working. The thing is, if what you’ve been doing isn’t working, continuing to do the exact same thing isn’t going to work either, even if you do try harder.
But trying something different might work. If you’ve followed the standard goal-setting advice, and it hasn’t worked for you, maybe it’s time to try something different.
Habits
In order to reach big goals, we usually have to make multiple changes. For instance, say you have a goal to “Save $5000 in 2017”. Great. But that probably means you’re going to have to make a budget and track your spending and not go out and make a meal plan and….on and on. Making too many changes at once can set you up for failure.
What we’re really talking about when we talk about goals is establishing new habits, or changing old ones. Creating new habits is hard. It takes focus and repetition and substitution. And your routines are so ingrained into your life that it’s difficult to remember to work the new goal into your regular, everyday grind.
Awareness
Enter awareness.
…we move toward what we hold in our awareness. This is a simple idea with profound consequences for making change in our lives. We become what we pay attention to. The more we hold something in our awareness, the more likely we are to move toward that thing.” – The Five Secrets You Must Discover Before You Die (John Izzo)
In The Five Secrets You Must Discover Before You Die
Participants were split into two groups. One group took the standard goal setting route – write down goals, review them and track progress.
In the other group, each participant was given a card and instructed to write down words that represented their goal. They were told to carry their card everywhere they went and look at the card 10-20 times each day.
The results? Both groups made progress on their goals. But the group that carried the cards made up to three times more progress.
Having a persistent reminder of their goal, several times each day, helped people become more aware of the choices they made. Eventually this awareness led to consistent habits that were aligned with their goal.
What’s the takeaway? To change the habits that need changing, you need to pay attention to the goal – regularly. You need to be aware of it constantly.
Awareness In Practice
Pick one goal. Let’s say you want to save $5000 in one year. Break it down into a monthly goal. You need to save $416.66 each month to reach your goal. That seems doable, but how will you make the necessary changes to save that much in a month?
Write down $416.66 on your card. Then take it one step further and write down WHY you want to save the money. Your Why creates even more motivation. Because saving money just for the sake of saving money isn’t very motivating.
Why do you want to save the money? Is it for a vacation? College savings? The down payment on a home? A car? Retirement? Write it down, along with your specific savings goal.
Create awareness by looking at it several times each day.
What could happen when you create this constant awareness? Maybe you would skip the latte or the snack at the gas station. Maybe you would cook a quick dinner, rather than ordering take-out. Maybe you’d have friends over instead of going out. When you’re looking at the card regularly each day, the awareness starts to change your behaviors.
It isn’t going to happen overnight, and might not happen in a month or two, but over time, the little changes start to add up. You may not save the entire $416.66 that first month, but you will start the ball rolling on the habits that need to change in order to save more.
Reminders to develop better money habits
You aren’t limited to using a card as your reminder. There are so many other ways to do it. It may take a little experimentation to see what works for you, but here are some suggestions:
- Reminders on your phone
- Automatic text messages to yourself
- Automatic emails to yourself
- Post it notes everywhere you are during the day – computer, phone, wallet, mirror, car, desk
- Write it on your to-do list
- Computer and phone screen savers
- Use it as your password (I do this! I’m reminded several times a day of my goal.)
- Wear a bracelet with your goal reminder on it
- Use an index card
You can also be strategic about reminder placement. For example, if you are trying to pay off debt, you could wrap a reminder around your credit and debit cards. Or put a photo of your Why in your wallet. (I would also recommend unsubscribing to retailer’s email lists and putting a note on your computer to squelch online purchases.)
Give it a try and see how it works for you. Use reminders to create the awareness that compels you to act every single day.
Have you ever used awareness as a tool for reaching your goals? How do you work on changing habits? What reminder tools do you use?
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This is great! I find that surrounding myself with reminders of my goals helps me to focus and keeps me on track. So many people set big goals, but don’t follow up and don’t end up accomplishing them.
Thanks, Rachel! 🙂 Surrounding yourself with reminders is a great way to create the habits that lead to success!
I have a friend who has some kind of financial independence type word as his password, so every time he types it in, he’s reminded of his goals. Pretty genius huh?
This is exactly what I do! I type it several times each day so it’s constantly there, reminding me of what we’re working toward.
This is just what I needed. I am really focused on habit forming right now because I have two areas where I really need to make progress. And I realized that it has to start with that big mental realization that something needs to change… really accepting in your mind that you are prepared to make a commitment. That first step for me is often the hardest part…
The first step is the hardest part, for sure. I have goals that I start on and then motivation wanes a short time later, so I’m working on reminders for those goals. It really does help to be aware of them several times a day. In time, the habits take hold!
I need to get back to this. The alarms on my fitbit were helping a lot with my get up and move goal, but since the band broke I haven’t been nearly as effective.
One idea I’m thinking about playing with is the vision board. Not sure what needs to be on there, yet. Seniors on a European walking tour?
I’ve heard from so many people about the FitBit! And it’s all been good. Having that constant reminder would be sooo helpful.
The vision board is a great idea, Emily! I’ve never done one, but I can tell you I would love to see yours when you get it done!!! 🙂
Reminders are a good idea. I have also found that gamification works for me. Give me points for doing something and I am a sucker for more and more points. It seems to matter not one whit that the points are worth absolutely nothing in the real world. I WANT MORE POINTS.
Love it, Mrs. BITA! I’ll sometimes compete with my past performance. For instance, if I spent $350 on groceries last month, I’ll try to beat it the next month. Same with savings. Everyone loves a competition! 🙂
Over the medium to long term, it was definitely awareness created by reminders that set me on the right path financially. I set concrete goals, but it was the awareness that came from constantly engaging myself in the material, both online and through books (and through realising that what I did for a living had loads in common with rocking my personal finances).
So, I think it’s fair to say that it was constant reminders through frequent engagement with the subject matter that did it for me. I like the idea of “hacking” that by throwing in additional reminders as well. Great post! 🙂
Thank you! I love how you mention engaging with the material through reading. 🙂 Though I’ve always been a huge fan of personal finance blogs, I took a break a couple of years ago. It was amazing how our savings rate plummeted during that time. I think even reading 2-3 articles per day is so helpful.
Great post Amanda! I am typically really bad with reminders, just ask my wife haha. I do stick to using a to-do list religiously for my daily tasks at work, but personally, I rely way too much on my short term memory, which is not good. : )
Thanks, MMM! 🙂 I have realized I should not rely on my memory. At all. I write down everything (pen and paper) and have multiple lists. And that usually works as long as I don’t put too much on my to-do list. As for goals, I try to use phone reminders and passwords, which works well for me.
I love the bracelet idea! I know that I didn’t really achieve my financial goals until I could really define that “why”.
Let me know if you try the bracelet, Kathryn! I like that one since it’s physically on your body all the time. I wonder if a person would become too accustomed to it – maybe switching arms each day would help with that though.
I have a white board in my cubicle at work. In the upper corner I’ve written two numbers. One is my savings target by calendar day, and the other is by work day. What they are is not spelled out, but any time I’ve had a rough day or want to buy something I look up at those numbers and snap out of it.
Oooh, great reminder, FTF! 🙂 My goals are written in code too. If you looked at my passwords, you’d have no idea what they meant, but they certainly mean something to me.
This makes so much sense. I always make more progress towards my side hustle goals when I’m reminded of them throughout the day. Even if it’s just a little note in my “One Note” workbook, it makes a big difference.
Constant awareness is so helpful! I tend to fall behind on the goals that aren’t on my radar each and every day.
I have some of our big picture goals written down, but I don’t do a good job using visual cues to remind me. Now that you mention it, some of our passwords are built on financial goals… so I guess we are moving in the right direction.
I think I may try some of the reminder techniques that you’ve mentioned. Thanks!
Thanks, Mr. Need2save! The passwords work well for the long term goals (annual) for me. The other goals (like diet and exercise) require a more constant reminder for me to be successful. Which explains why I haven’t been to the gym in 2 weeks. 🙂
I like the index card idea. I have my monthly habits written down and review my goals almost every day, but I like the idea of bringing it with me. One year I put all my yearly goals in my phone and it was a great way to review them often.
Love that you review almost every day! The phone works well. I’ve been working on a meditation habit and have used my phone as a reminder. When I’m sitting in the car waiting on my daughter, I look at my phone – keeping yearly goals on there would be a great way to look at them more consistently. 🙂
Great points. Making goals are great but just look at new year’s resolutions…we set goals but quickly forget about them. I think building habits and giving ourselves constant reminders are much more helpful. I like putting reminders on my phone because I see it everyday…and can’t avoid it.
Thanks, Andrew. You’re right, building the habits is highly effective. I think the phone is a great tool for reminders since most people have it with them all the time. Maybe set a different sound for your goal to differentiate it from other alerts.
I add reminders to my calendar. I’ll take a picture of my goal and use that the wallpaper on my device. I’ll do my best to make my goal public because the public accountability motivates me to not fail.
Good post, Amanda. I especially love that idea that if something isn’t working, the *trying harder* probably isn’t going to help.
Thanks, Ty. I love the idea of taking a picture of your goal and using it as wallpaper! That’s certainly a constant reminder, particularly on a phone. And I totally agree with publicly sharing goals – this will provide the incentive to move forward even when you don’t feel like it.
I love this concept! I absolutely need daily, even hourly, reminders to follow through on my goals. I kept an old-fashioned list of my five daily goals just for January, and that helped a lot. I still need to work out some other way of motivating myself, as I’ve been slacking in a lot of areas. I love Mrs. BITA’s comment on the obsession with points! I’m the same way. I record workouts in a fitness app, and I never look back more than a week, but I still love the reward of logging those workouts!
Thanks, Mrs. COD! I need to have the constant awareness too. My memory isn’t all that great and I’m such a creature of habit. I like old fashioned lists – and use them every day. Agreed, just the act of logging completion or checking off something on a list is rewarding. I’m trying this out with meditation using the Headspace app – so far, so good!
I’ve been noticing I’ve been changing my eating habits by logging my meals into the My Fitness Pal app. It really makes you aware of everything you eat and what’s in it.
Apps are great. And just the fact that you have to log what you eat makes you pay more attention and do better. I mean, who wants to actually log that they ate three cookies in one sitting!? 🙂
Breaking our goals into a “monthly payment” makes it easier for us too. Our big savings goal is paying off our mortgage early. After plugging our numbers into a calculator, we realized the exact amount we needed to contribute.
As the others have mentioned as well. There are lots of different ways to motivate you to be aware and keep on track with your “Why” behind a goal.
I personally like post-it notes because they are small and moveable.
The “monthly payment” is a great way to make those larger goals seem more doable. I like to do this too – I have a certain account set aside for each savings goal. For example, I have a vacation account, a insurance and gas account (annual expenses), and a rental house account and I contribute to them each month.
Knowing your “why” is the key to motivation. And if you have a constant awareness of that, it’ll keep you going even when you don’t feel like it.
Great tips Amanda! I often find that when I set some goals for myself, I tend to forget them. I only remember them when I look at my list again, reminders are clearly needed!
Breaking our normal routines is hard! And those reminders certainly do help. Thanks, T!
Love this concept, Amanda!!! I think I might start doing this – thank you for sharing!
Thanks, Laurie! 🙂
We used the chalk board method for counting down days to retirement. A different scenario but it’s a great visual reminder. We had it on the wall by the refrigerator. I’ve heard some say they’ve had success with reaching goals by writing daily in a journal.
Love the chalk board idea, Mrs. Groovy! Charting progress is a great motivator – and reminder every time you walk by it. Daily journaling is something I would like to work into my routine, but it hasn’t stuck – yet. Maybe I need a reminder!
Motivation is fleeting. Habits are destiny. Reminders forge habits. Way to tackle the “reminders” portion of this puzzle. I particularly like using a reminder as a screen saver and wrapping a reminder around your credit card. What great ideas! Thank you, Amanda. I learned something today.
Thanks, Mr. Groovy! 🙂 Love this – “Motivation is fleeting. Habits are destiny.” What a succinct way to put it.
I like to use Post-Its on my computer screen for daily reminders, and I put other reminders around the house for other goals (I recently put a photo of me at a marathon finish line on the fridge as a reminder that I’m trying to get back into shape for my next race–stay away, cheese monster!).
I also like to put reminders in my phone. My rule is I can’t clear the notification until the task is done.
Love the idea of the marathon photo on your fridge. Perfect placement! 🙂 Not clearing the reminders on the phone until the task is complete is a great method to get it done. Thanks Willow!