‘If I could go back to high school, I would do things a lot differently.’ ‘I would be rich today if I had known how to invest five years ago.’ ‘I wish I would have started working out six months ago!’

Sound familiar?  Have you ever thought anything similar to this?  I think we all have and there is nothing wrong with doing that.  Where it becomes a problem is when we become victims.  We all of a sudden think that there is no hope or future and that our time has passed.

There is another way of looking at things.  Look ahead five years from now.  Where do you want to be?  How do you want to see yourself?  Basically, what are you going to wish that you had started or knew five years ago?  We all have a desire to be successful in certain areas but seldom do anything other than wish.

Here is how to solve that problem.  Once you have an idea of where you want to be, it is time to make a plan.  What is needed to get there?  For example, if you want to have $30,000 in savings.  How can you start getting to that goal today?  Save $500 each month or $115.39 each week or $16.44 a day.  Whatever it takes to get you to your goal, needs to be done.  It is very hard to come up with $30,000 in a few months or even a year for most people and that is why you have to plan ahead.

Once a desired outcome is created the work begins.  The first question you need to do is map out the major landmarks that are required to see before you get to your goal.  In our example above you know that at the end of six months you need to have $3,000.  If not, then you need to adjust what you are doing to get there.

Now that you have your map drawn, it is time to put a plan into motion.  EX: To get to $3,000 in six months, I need to save $500 each month.  To get that $500 will require sacrificing some luxuries that I normally enjoy.  Discovering those is usually easier than we think.  Instead of “Super Sizing” our lunch we get the regular.  That saves our waistband and our wallet.  Looking phone numbers in a phone book or online as opposed to using 4-1-1 will save money.  There are thousands of little things that we do that can be cut out.

Currently, you have a map of all the landmarks that you want to hit and a detailed plan on how to hit each one.  Finally, it comes to the time for implementation.  Strive to reach each goal and keep checking to ensure that each landmark is met.  If you fail to reach the mark then determine what you did wrong, was it a bad plan or a bad boy.  If you hit your goal, celebrate and reward yourself with one of the luxuries you took away from yourself.