3 Reasons Why You Absolutely Need to have Every Day Goal Reminders

August 1, 2018

I’m very open about my goal. It’s even in the title of my blog: from Broke to Beach. In my About Me section I talk about my plans to retire early with my husband and live life on the beach. And believe me, once I set a goal, write it down, make a plan and tell people about it, it’s going to happen. Every day goal reminders are part of that plan to make it happen.

We were once $225,000 in debt. After 120 months of attitude and perspective change along with really hard work, we are now debt-free and have built up multiple income streams, including this blog, have a retirement fund, savings account, and investments that we can be proud of. We are also helping fund our daughters’ college educations – just part. They are each planning to fund the rest of their four-year degrees debt-free.

Back to my goal. It’s crystal clear just like the water in front of the beach we want to retire on. In fact, we’ve visited the vacant lot we would like to purchase a couple of times now. But thankfully my husband is good at reminding me to be patient – it used to be the other way around! Funny how that changes. We want to save up enough cash to fully purchase the lot thus avoiding going into debt ever again. I’m 35 now. By age 40 our goal is to purchase that beachfront lot on our favorite Caribbean island. By age 45 our goal is to build our first shipping container home and have it moved down to our lot so that we can begin to use and enjoy it!

Do you have a goal that excites you? That you can see, hear, and know every day what you are working so hard for? Getting out of debt, building multiple income streams, saving and investing is way easier with an end-goal in mind – one that is vividly real.

If you don’t yet have a goal set, or if it’s not crystal clear in your mind to where it excites the crap out of you, that’s okay, this post is still for you. If you want to work on creating one, check out my Vividly Real Goal creation post.

For me, I’ve found it absolutely necessary to have every day goal reminders surrounding me to connect me to the “why’s”. This is the most important thing to keep me excited as I work extremely hard. Now some days this feels like torture since I can’t “have it now.” However, delaying gratification is huge in achieving debt-free status and financial freedom, so it keeps me in the right mindset daily.

Every day goal reminders are anything that make you think about, see, hear, taste or feel your goal on a daily basis. My laptop and cellphone wallpaper are of beaches on my lovely island. A photo of the amazing waters hangs on my refrigerator. I drink out of sea or beach inspired coffee cups. Part of my living room décor includes pieces of coral from trips we’ve taken. We had family photos taken on a beach on the island, so those hang on my walls and in my bedroom. I even go to sleep listening to waves crashing on the beach. There’s plenty more examples, but you get the idea. No matter where I am or where I go, there is always something to remind me why I need to save, why I need to work hard, and why I need to continue to focus on the end-game.

Here are 3 Reasons Why You Absolutely Need to have Every Day Goal Reminders:

Your Past

Your past is your past and if you are like most, you’ve made past financial decisions that have haunted you or continue to plague you today. Every day goal reminders help you accept your past mistakes and learn from them as you focus on your future. These reminders draw a line in the sand so that you don’t repeat or make those bad decisions again. Let go of your past but remember to hold onto those lessons learned.

Your Present

Every day goal reminders help you see your present situation as the key to your future. They help you want to save money, make money, and work hard every day. They help you make good financial decisions that set your life on a new trajectory. Your present determines your future and the best thing is that your “present” is a new gift each morning.

Your Future

The best part about every day goal reminders is that they help you see and envision how fantastic your future will be. They keep your excitement levels high and real until you achieve your goals. Never let the time it takes to reach your goals or your future discourage you – the time will pass anyway. I recently heard a song called A Million Dreams covered by the adorable Father-Daughter duo, Dave and Claire, that resonated with me. It reminded me that my future, my world is what I create and design it to be.

They can say, they can say it all sounds crazy

They can say, they can say I’ve lost my mind

I don’t care, I don’t care, so call me crazy

We can live in a world that we design

It seems that living debt-free or paying with only cash is crazy these days. That I’ve lost my mind if I can make a full-time living blogging. Guess what – I don’t care, so call me crazy. I’m living in a world that I design and so can you!