Is Goal Setting Helpful?

Goal setting doesn’t need to be painful!

Goal setting is developing an action plan that’s designed to motive and guide you towards your goals. How many books and articles have you read in the past that mention goal setting and try to get you to create a list of goals? Yet, if you ask 10 people what they want, you would be hard pressed to really get a true answer. Even for me, I’ve prepared written goals every year for about a decade now. I find the short-term goals quite easy to set and accomplish. Every day, I write down the things I want to get done that day and take pleasure out of crossing those “tasks” off the list. Weekly and monthly goals aren’t much more difficult. If I set my mind to them, I can absolutely “cross off” those short-term goals as well.

Yearly goal setting is a little trickier.

A year can go by quickly, but from a goal setting standpoint, it isn’t ideal. Let’s say you set a goal of losing 50 pounds (a very common goal). In the first 3 months, you lose 5 pounds total. You think, oh well, I’ve still got 9 months to catch up. But around month 7 or 8, and you are maybe at less than 10 pounds lost, the realization hits you that there is no way to hit your goal. If you are anything like me, you rationalize it, by saying, well at least I’m down 7 pounds.

Or you say, well I’m accomplishing other goals.

Lifelong goals are the most difficult for me to set. Most of us have a vision of being successful and retiring. But either don’t know how to get there or don’t know where the finish line really is. I set a goal of cash flow and net worth a few years ago, thinking if I reached that number I’d be able to live off my cash flow and use my net worth as the cash cow that it is. I’d never have to touch my principle and could let that grow over time. Sounds great, but what if you hit those numbers but aren’t quite ready to roll into the sunset? Will I ever be ready to roll into the sunset? I’m struggling with that issue.

How I am rationalizing it, is I’m not “retiring” but moving onto a different stage in my investing life.

We will still own our real estate, but now I can focus more on being a passive partner, or get involved in venture capitalism, where you invest in companies that need capital and you get a piece of the company. We have been working all of our adult lives, and it is scary to think we might reach a time when we don’t need to do that anymore. Scary because this is all we have ever known. What’s next? I guess this is a good problem to have. And it is something that can happen by investing in real estate … and holding onto those assets.