Achieving Goals
People work really hard and continually have goals in mind. We are not content with what we have right now, but that's okay; having the impression that your life might need some improvement isn't always a terrible thing.
Making a sacrifice to accomplish something is never as easy as shopping for new clothes on sale. Although I'm not the best person to discuss how to accomplish goals, I can share how a regular person like me goes about doing so.
I have long term and short term goals. My long term goal is to retire early and enjoy life. My short term goal is to invest something every year.
- 2019 - Bloq Residences condo
- 2020 - WFH job (since it was pandemic)
- 2021 - Get married
- 2022 - New house
Listing goals can be as simple as a child's fantasy of what they want to be when they grow up. The hard part is the PROCESS.
It's undeniable that we're in a world right now, and that "you deserve it" is everywhere. Even I can’t resist temptation. I've always loved Krispy Kreme, so whenever I visit Ayala, I check their Facebook page to see if there's a coupon code. I also spent over 10,000PHP on a workstation upgrade because I wanted a visually appealing, instagrammable, and Pinterest-worthy workspace. It is never a bad thing to pamper yourself, but if those habits are preventing you from reaching your goals, you must stop.
I've had cravings and the "must celebrate all occasions in restaurants" thing before. However, I ended up always being pressured to find a restaurant that we haven’t tried and had no savings at all. So we began our meal in "carenderia," with three types of vegetables and two cups of rice, which I share with my husband. And when there's an occasion, we order 4–5 kinds of viand to feel special. It became a habit, and it made me happy. We just paid 100 pesos for both of us in one meal.
I know you'll be asking why won’t we just cook at home; it's healthy and saves more money. We did cook if we felt like eating canned foods, hotdogs, and eggs. But when we want a decent meal, we go out to the carenderia to eat. The reason for this is that we were able to save a few more money when we eat at the carenderia. We don't have to buy those ingredients because they'll get spoiled in the fridge. If we cook our own food, we will eat the same type of meal for the entire week in order to use up the ingredients before it spoils.
So, before I change the subject, let's get back to achieving our goals. I always keep myself so busy that I won't have time for social media. I just post to social media if it is something I want to keep as a memory or when I want to help others. And then I log out. I don't have time to check to see who liked my photos or who commented because I would feel obligated to like their posts as well, and then it eats up my time. Speaking of social media, use it to motivate you to achieve your goals. For example, if you want to own a car, go to the car pages and post comments, and react. And voila, you will be receiving lots of sponsored posts about cars. If you want to renovate your house, do the same. It really works for me. Rather than liking videos on dancing and unboxing things that make you buy random stuff or make you feel that your life is not likable.
I always keep myself so busy that I won't have time for social media.
So you have two things right now.
- Keep yourself busy.
- Determine whether you are motivated by the right things in the right way.
The third is to always keep yourself closer to your goals and never forget to make yourself better than your past self. You don't have to be the best of everyone, just be better than your past self, and you'll be on the right track. I mentioned above that I bought a workstation upgrade worth 10,000PHP, and there's a reason for that (or maybe I just make excuses XD). There will always be days when you don’t want to work or are not motivated enough to work. So what I did was I made my workstation the most beautiful place in the room and have the most comfortable chair to sit in. So I'll be spending most of my time at my workstation. So even on weekends, I'm working.
Always keep yourself closer to your goals and never forget to make yourself better than your past self.
Fourth, thank God for the skills or knowledge he has given you and put it to use to earn more money. We have this kind of alter ego that we want to be like something we fantasize about, but the reality is that we earn money on skills or knowledge for which we don't know we are good. For example, I've always seen myself crafting, sketching, and painting. I can't pursue that because I have goals, and developing websites is where I earn money. There are a lot of success stories from my personal friends about how lucky they are that they earn money doing things they actually love. I'm not the kind of person to agree that you should just work at what you love and you'll not be working the rest of your life, because that didn't work for the majority of people. Another person's success is not your success.
If you have a friend who earns money doing something they love, that may not work for you.I don't know if they are lucky or if we don't know about their struggles, but what I want to say is to focus first on what you have and what you can control. Focus on the talent or skill that God gave you. I never forgot what I learned in school: your mind controls your heart. In my case, I make money by developing websites, so I THINK I will enjoy it. I control my heart to like it. So I began to enjoy working and developing websites to the point where even when I'm on vacation, I find myself thinking about work. I got stressed at work, but my stress outlet is still developing websites. So I earn either way, even though I'm stressed.
If you have a friend who earns money doing something they love, that may not work for you.
Lastly, if you want to achieve your goals, surround yourself with people who share your values and goals. If you want to own a car, talk to people that have cars. If you want to build a house, connect with people that are good at it. If you want to have kids (like us), join and meet couples that are also trying to have kids.
I hope you get something on this and if "you" (future me reading this) I wrote this down for you so you dont forget.
Surround yourself with people who share your values and goals.
