Key Takeaways
- When creating a goal, use SMART to ensure it is specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely.
- You can use SMART to create a financial goal that will help you achieve something like buying a house, a new car, or to save money for something.
- You can use the way your brain naturally operates to your advantage by creating a SMART goal.
Have you ever noticed that when you buy a new car, the very next day, you see that car everywhere? It seems like magic when that happens. Well, it doesn’t really work that way. What’s actually happening is your brain activates on something that you have an interest in.
How can we use this to achieve our financial goals?
Let me introduce you to the acronym SMART, which stands for specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely. Let’s say you are looking at buying a house, or a new car, or you are trying to build up a certain amount of money in a savings account for something. Consider using SMART to create a goal that gets your interest going.
What does a goal created with SMART look like? It’s got to be specific or your brain won’t grab on to it, kind of like the new car phenomena discussed earlier. It has to be measurable, which means you’ve got to give it a number or quantify it in some way. It must be achievable, otherwise you’ll get frustrated or try to fight it, so don’t make it too hard. Make it a realistic goal, which means it should be relatable to what you are trying to achieve. And finally, it needs to be a timely goal, meaning you need to have a timeline to keep you on track, otherwise you might never get it done!
If you create a goal using SMART, then you’ll easily be able to get your brain activated in to focusing on that goal. Every day behind the scenes, your brain will be looking for where that money needs to go and how to accumulate that, how to reduce expenses, or whatever it is you are trying to do. Before you know it, that SMART goal will help you achieve what you are after.
It really is that simple. It’s just one of these little things that a lot of us miss and don’t realize that we could be using the way our brains naturally operate to our advantage, with some proactive, SMART goals.
Until next time, enjoy!