If you missed Part 1, you can read it here.
So, after reading last week’s post, you may be thinking: “Garry, are you telling me that when we have reached our goals, we just need to sit on our money, take risk off the table and stop pursuing what is next?”
Of course not! The beauty of this principal is that, by following it, we actually get more opportunity to grow and ultimately achieve more in the future! But to do so, we need to look at each one of our goals individually.
Let us go back to our example from part 1. You have saved for your new property earlier than anticipated, so we took risk off the table and put that money in something conservative. Now, we have an opportunity to pursue our next goal sooner than we anticipated. By checking off one goal early, we get to go after a new one sooner. Maybe it’s clear what is next on our list, or maybe we think of something new entirely. The key is that, because we have removed an unknown (will I save enough for that new property?), it gives us the freedom to think about what is next.
It also provides a sense of emotional security to know that a goal is achieved and accomplished. Behavioral finance tells us that we can only pursue so many things at once. The more compartmentalized we can be in achieving our goals, the higher our chances of success. If we have too many goals going on at once, we risk spreading our dollars, and our minds, so thin that we don’t make much progress on anything.
Lastly, this approach gives us a chance to reset and reevaluate what we want to accomplish. Maybe we under- or over-estimated our goal and need to recalibrate it. Perhaps we feel differently than we thought we would when we reached our desired ending point. Taking time to reflect is an important foundation to successfully accomplish what is next on the list.
How have you seen the achievement of one of your goals lay the groundwork for a new goal in the future?
