Setting a goal is easy. Creating a goal and sticking to it is an entirely different story. In fact, it seems the easier it is to set a goal, the less likely you are to achieve it.  Admit it, you’ve set countless New Year’s resolutions and have MAYBE accomplished a few of them.

Here is how NewLeaf Financial Guidance helps clients develop and set goals:

Learn from the past

Reflecting on how you’ve made decisions in the past is a great place to start.  Which decisions have you made that turned out to be good decisions? Which decisions do you regret? What are the common threads that made a good decision successful? What things led to decisions being regretful?

Understand your core values

Your core values are what drive how you make decisions.  They may include things such as faith, family, integrity, education, and meaningful work and may change over time.

Develop goals in the context of your core values

Decisions made in alignment with your core values often lead to you being satisfied with that decision.  The same is true about setting short-, mid-, and long-term goals.

Take time to reflect on your values.  Grab a cup of coffee, glass of wine, pint of beer, or bottle of water and spend some time reflecting on what’s important to you and why. The sooner you can answer why it’s important, the sooner you’ll be able to create goals, both financially and personally, that are attainable.

At NewLeaf Financial Guidance, we help our clients develop goals that are rooted in their core values.  Where are your goal’s roots?