We’ve been exposed early in our life about goals, aspirations, and trying to reach our dreams. We all probably heard that in order to reach our goals we have to work hard to get it. Not only work hard but we have to make a plan how we get there. Whether you have goals to get into a certain career field, a certain position, opening a business, make a certain amount of money, or whatever you have aspirations for, these all require a plan. Failure to plan is planning to fail.

Saying that you want to be rich, retire early, quit work, or be financial independent are high level goals that are a result of early planning, goal development, and good execution. A plan is your blueprint, your financial design of how you’re going to reach your goals. Remember, money doesn’t fall from the sky. Reaching goals takes work and sacrifice.

Let’s just say that you want to be financially independent. That’s a very high level goal. First, you’re going to have to define what this means because it will be different from person to person. Now ask yourself, what do I need to do to achieve this? What smaller goals do I need to reach in order to become financially independent?

If you think that you don’t need to plan, I would have to disagree. Failure to plan is planning to fail. You need a map to your goal. One technique I learned from my boss is to build a 1, 3, 5 year plan. What do you want to achieve in one year, your third year, and fifth year? What are the things you need to accomplish that lead up to the first, third, and fifth year? I have it printed out and it hangs on my wall as a reminder what my goals are.

I wrote about SMART goals in a previous article and this is another technique I’ve learned to help me with my work. SMART stands for

• Specific
• Measurable
• Achievable
• Realistic
• Time-based

If you can spell out your goals that lead up to the 1, 3, 5 year plan and each goal includes each SMART item, you are starting to plan. For example, let’s say you want to make $100,000 in revenue by the end of the year. It’s specific, measurable, and time-based. You know how much you want to make and by when. Is it achievable and realistic? If you don’t have your product ready to release, maybe it’s not achievable or realistic to make $100,000.

Every plan won’t go as planned and sometimes you’ll experience challenges, roadblocks, and difficult decisions you have to make. Bad planning will result in a bad outcome. Good planning will result in a better outcome. No planning won’t even get you out of the starting gate. Make a plan, create SMART goals, and avoid planning to fail. If you are interested in following my journey, email subscribe to get alerts of latest posts or follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest.

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