Goal Setting
I was at a conference over the weekend, and it really nailed on the value of goal setting and how they play a part in life. Without them, its pretty easy to go aimlessly around, letting day by day pass you by. With a goal, you’re at least able to focus your energy in a direction, know when you’re falling behind, and when you’re succeeding.
The most important part of a goal isn’t actually accomplishing it (though that would be good), its working towards it. As we all try to achieve our goals, things come up, plans change, but they do so as we try to achieve it.
Over the past several years, I’ve always had the goal of paying off my student loan. But as the stock markets crashed, I pushed off that goal deliberately, and shifted money into the stock market to buy at a low, and cash out at a high. Well, pushing off that goal was a good thing for me, and worked out well.
As of this month, I’ve officially paid off my entire student loan, and closed the account.
I could have kept this student loan for almost 5 more years, based off the loan agreement, but I really wanted to get rid of it. While it took a couple years longer than my original plan, it feels great to scratch it off.
For the first time since I started school, I’m 100% debt free — it feels great. Granted, it will be short lived, as I’m hoping to buy a place next year, but I will enjoy it nonetheless.
This year, I’ve already completed 2 of my big goals — Pay off my student loan, and graduate with honors. My third goal for the year was to save $10,000 for retirement, and it looks like I’m on course for that by the end of the year. So far, 2011 has been good!
I’m slowly working in my head to set goals for 2012 — both professional, financial, and life goals. These will all help fall into the longer term goals, but will help make 2012 much more focused of a year.
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