Now we've looked at how to stay the course and why it's important, let's look at what you need to do.
Everything You Need to DO
Don’t Forget to Live in the Now
This is really important. One of the biggest arguments against being driven towards your financial future is that you might die tomorrow. In practice this is VERY unlikely, but the idea is fairly sound – don’t neglect today entirely while you focus on tomorrow. Life is a journey and any journey isn’t just about the destination but the experiences along the way.
As ever the goal is to be intentional about every decision we make. If you decide to spend your money on something now, then do so with gladness, having understood the impact on your future plans and reconciled yourself with it. At least then you will arrive at the destination with some memories of time and money well spent along the way.
Where there are other people in your life, don’t force them to live a life they don’t want to live in order to support your goal – strive to be on the same page and find a balance. Enjoy now to the fullest extent, but do so with intention, not due to some soundbite excuse like ‘you might be dead tomorrow’.
You won’t be, most likely, so you need to build wealth for a time when working for money is either impossible or undesirable. But to arrive at the destination exhausted from working too hard, and with broken relationships from a too-singular focus, is a poor outcome indeed. Don’t forget to live in the now, while still focusing on the destination.
Review Things Regularly
We've looked at robust reviews before, where we considered the practicalities of reviewing your progress towards your goals. As well as the practical stuff, reviewing things regularly has other benefits.It helps you to refocus on your goals. Remember that actions are defined by the goals, so we need to make sure we actively revisit those goals often so that we can make sure we’re taking the right actions at the right time.
Regular reviews prevent drift. Making small course corrections often means that you’ll never veer far off your planned course. Reviewing forces you to lift your head from the grind and look out and forward towards the prize. You can get your bearings and reorient yourself, course-correct if needed, and then get your head back down to move forward.
There will be times when significant course corrections will be needed because the destination has changed, with in its form or its timescale. Life happens, and when it does, you won’t be able to keep going towards your initial goal; you’ll need to form a new vision in light of changing circumstances.
It could be anything from a career change or long-term illness, to a relationship or family change and lots more things besides. Reviewing things regularly is the very definition of being intentional. It’s a definitive point, at least once per year, or more often if needed, where you take stock, adjust and move on.
Missed the first post in this series? Or ready to move on to the final blog?
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