Yesterday, Jackie over at MoneyCrush asked her readers, “What do you really want to achieve?”  Among the fantastic content in her post was this:

“Half-hearted attempts won’t get you a thing — excepted wasted time and energy.”

The general feedback in the post’s comments was along the line of “Go Big or Go Home,” “Find your passion and chase it with all your heart,” and mine: “You simply must have the “go big” mindset, and you have to keep your eyes on the prize!”

After typing that, I thought about how I keep my ‘eyes on the prize.’  I realized that I do the following to keep myself motivated, working hard to meet my financial goals, and to not lose sight of the big picture:

I have a plan

I have monthly and annual goals that help keep me focused on my long-term financial vision.

I utilize daily reminders

Whether I’m blogging, executing my financial routine, or tweeting with other PF bloggers, I have a built-in reminder system of what my goals are and why I’m working hard to meet them.

I hold myself accountable

By putting my goals, debt payoff totals, savings balances and retirement & net worth updates out here for your reading pleasure, I am effectively holding myself accountable to anyone who reads this blog.

I don’t compare myself to others

If I compared myself to all of the other more successful PF bloggers or millionaires out there, I’d be doing myself a huge disservice (and I would probably lose focus, give up, and go back to the days of credit card abuse). Instead, I compare my progress to my past. I notice trends in my own spending and saving where I can either enhance or cut back on behaviors, dependent upon my various goals.

I go “All-in”

Going cold-turkey on my past spendaholic tendencies was not easy. Over the past 5 years, I’ve done some intense evaluation of my financial past, present, and future. Doing so has allowed me to gain the strength and tenacity to move forward with attainable, aggressive goals. There’s no way in H-E-double hockey sticks that I’m going to mess up the progress I’ve made due to not being 100% focused on my goals.

I make debt payoff and saving FUN.

Commenting on blogs, supporting other bloggers, creating mini challenges aimed at various short-term goals, having a financial to-do list that I get to cross things off of, creating a life list, etc, etc, etc–all of these things are a part of my life because I enjoy them. Having things in my life that I enjoy as well as the financial footing to move forward however I choose?  THAT is fun (and so are the vacations & subsequent crazy stories, photos, and experiences that come from having enough financial freedom to build them in).

 

What are your ways?  How do you keep your “eyes on the prize” when it comes to finances and your long-term objectives?