​Goal setting is important in every aspect of life and any individual who wishes to achieve success. Top-level athletes, successful business people and high achievers in every field will set goals to get where they need to be. Goals are a powerful tool which address a long term vision and applies short term motivation to get us there. Focus and determination are two very important areas for good goal setting as they enable us to see what the target is and how to stay on track to get there.

Using goal setting for trading gives motivation to better yourself and to achieve the level of success desired. This is an amazing technique to push yourself to success.

You become what you think about most of the time! This is fact as it is etched in your subconscious.

Our mind has ways to delivering beyond our understanding. You become what you think about most of the time! Differentiating between a daydream and a goal comes down to specific techniques to make this possible. Dreams can inspire a person while goals will get them there.

Why is goal setting important? Is it just a plan in place to remind you of what needs to be done? Is it a way to convince the very core of your beliefs and program the subconscious mind to one day unveil its magic and get you to where you need to be?

 

Know your goals and motivation

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Know what you’re working towards. Is it the life of travel or a new sports car? It is important to be specific and visualise when goal setting.

“The elevator to success might be broken, but the stairs are always open!”

 

Very few people have the financial IQ and independence to break away from the status-quo and live the life they want. The average person in a developed economy earns enough to pay their bills, cover the rent/mortgage repayments and maybe save up for a nice holiday for a week or two each year.

The life of many looks something like this; sit in traffic or public transport twice a day, get to a job working for someone else in something you have no passion for, earn a pay check so you can cover your bills in life, go to sleep to and do it all again, over and over. Many of these people have a cap on their ability to earn with maybe a promotion or a 10% raise in the not too distant future. And there is nothing wrong with it if that is what makes someone happy.​​

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Can I earn a living trading?

 

 

In short, of course! Thousands of people are already at the point where their skills are good enough to generate profits to sustain the life they want. Traders only need access to the internet and their platform.

Naturally; this takes time, practice and a sufficient capital backing. If it was easy then everybody would be using their trading accounts to essentially print money. It is important to manage trading psychology and risk management early to reduce the possibility of losing lots of capital and being deterred from progressing forward.

Everyone is different. So whether you want to trade every day or simply do it on the side, it is up to you. Those traders who do it for a living typically have years of experience and accumulation of capital. 

Manage expectations. Many enjoy being involved in the markets to see how the economies are moving and make a little on the side. It is rare to find traders who became an instant success when first starting! 

 

Making a plan

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Many goal setting related books and sources of information will have very similar areas to put your energy towards as they have all been proven to provide great results. Below are some of the key attributes of goal setting.

 

Start with the bigger picture and work down to the individual steps needed to get there.

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• Visualise the ‘bigger picture’ where you want to be in life in a specified amount of time. Seeing things from a larger scale makes it easier to begin narrowing this down into more specific tasks and targets that can be accomplished over the next year, month and day.

• Characterise each area in life which is important to you and where each one needs to be for the lifetime goal to work. Good examples can be driven by career, education, financial wealth, relationships with family and peers, health and fitness, holidays and pleasure.

• After this has been realised, narrow the goals down to a list of smaller more defined goals which will pave the way to arrive to the bigger picture. These may be as simple as taking a course to learn a new skill.

 

Write them down

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• Make goals real by putting them on paper and therefore easier to visualise. If you have a whiteboard put the goals on there for you to see every day and cross them off one by one. Nothing is more satisfying than getting to the end of a to-do list. Imagine if that to-do list was the steps to your ideal life? Wouldn’t it be great to be able to see that and cross it off as you get nearer?

 

Make them S.M.A.R.T.

S – Specific

• Be specific with your goals. Know what colour the dream house is or the sports car, smell the leather and know if you want it to be an automatic or a manual. By being specific we embed the image into our subconscious mind and once we do that, it’s almost like auto-pilot mode.

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M – Measurable

• Make sure the goal is measurable with amounts, dates, etc. Setting a goal which is broad such as ‘reduce expenses’ doesn't allow the ability to identify when it is done. By how much? When? All of these are important to knowing the final target and getting there.

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A – Attainable & accountable

• There’s no point setting a goal which is unattainable. Particularly in the short term, otherwise we are wasting our time and feel unmotivated and depressed when we can’t achieve the goal. Alternatively, avoid setting goals which are too easy otherwise we risk feeling like no real accomplishments are made after we’ve crossed it off the list!

• Make yourself accountable for achieving the goal and take responsibility for its success. Tell people of your goal, this will make you accountable. Share the goals with friends or family members.

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R – Relevant

• A goal which isn’t relevant to our overall target and bigger picture is a goal wasted. It may be useful for other situations but goals should be specific to the end result in question.

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T – Time bound

• Have goals which are trackable and linked to a certain time before the goal needs to be met. For example read a book on how to learn healthy eating habits by next week.

Applying the S.M.A.R.T. principle easily defines the goal and makes it clearer as to when and what needs to be done.

 

• It’s no use to just say ‘I want to be fit!’ Fit means different things to different people and you need to be very specific about what you want. Being too general or vague will only make an individual unsure of what road needs to be taken to get there.

• Wealth is a great example. ‘I want to be rich and wealthy!’ What does that specifically mean? To one person that can be having a really big house with a $150k pay check every year while to another it could mean owning an empire and being a billionaire.

 

Motivation, positivity, performance & priorities

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Motivation

Goals need to be motivating and they need to be important to you. A person is more likely to give up and walk away rather than pushing to the end without motivation. Many goals require effort and work, which by human nature is something most of us tend to turn away from unless the result of it is something we care about. As commitment is key, maximising the likelihood of success can only come from feeling a sense of urgency and positive attitude in order to turn it into reality.

Positivity

There's a saying that positive people attract other positive people. Those who smile often are usually welcomed more frequently as it makes others feel good. The same goes for our own thought process and the way we read and think about certain things.

The key is to make goals positive. Have a goal which is not negative. By setting a goal which is ‘don’t be so lazy around the house’ only puts focus on negative words. Focusing on more positive words makes us feel better thinking about the goal.

Performance

Try make goals with as much control over the outcome as possible. Setting goals which are more likely to be determined by the outcome of something that is out of your control will not make it easy to accomplish on your own efforts. It does not feel very good to not reach a goal or fail due to reasons out of your control.

Priorities

It can be easy to find yourself with several goals to tick off at the same time. The best way to tackle this is to start with the most important as well as those easiest to accomplish. At the start, by setting easier and relevant goals, we become accustomed to accomplishing the goals which makes us want to continue down this path. Prioritise goals so you aren’t wasting your time on those less important and don’t focus on the harder goals first. Remember this is a process of forming habits and feeling good about getting closer to the final target.

 

Achieving The Goal

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People ask themselves 'why haven't I reached my goals yet?' No one can answer this but yourself. Maybe certain speed bumps have delayed the final steps and the drive to carry through to the end vanished. We already know that success requires thousands of hours of hard work and is not an overnight outcome. Muhammad Ali, Michael Phelps, Usain Bolt, Roger Federer or any of the individuals who have dominated all would have given up blood, sweat and tears to be the best. 

Some goals are easy to achieve, such as today I’m going to go to the gym and walk 1km on the treadmill. They require no preparation or practise and make us feel okay because it was easy. Other goals might not be so easy and they are what make our accomplishments feel so great.

Once a goal is achieved, take the time to enjoy the satisfaction and feel good about the progress made. Reflect on the goal and see if the next one needs to either be more advanced or a little simpler in order to make it attainable.

 

What does being rich/successful mean?

One of the more important questions rather than do you want to be rich is, ‘what does wealth and money mean to you?’ Is it just to replicate what you see on media and television to have nice cars and go on big boats?

If ‘being rich’ is just to replicate someone else’s image of happiness through money, chances are it probably won’t actually make you happy as you will always just be chasing someone else’s dream.

There will always be someone who has more. The people who know what will make them happy and are specific about it regularly don’t need an infinite wallet to enjoy all that life has to offer.

Money can be a tool to achieve specific goals. Test yourself by asking, 'if I won $10 million today what would I do and more importantly why? This question can crack the door open to seeing what might make you happy in the end. For most, it is to be able to rid themselves of the 9-5 grind and use the time we have been given on this planet exploring, learning and doing what makes us happy.

Once you know what it is that you want in life and where you want to be, only you can stop you from doing it.