Goal Achievement Month - Chapter 4

STEP 4: Follow your plan and adjust or pivot when necessary

I realized that the path to achieving my goal was through building a business. I always believed this to be true: you can either be a star in your own movie or an extra in someone else’s. I always knew I was a superstar. The first action I took was to study about money and business from the greats in the field. I learned about the American financial system, most importantly how to keep more of the money I made, because I realized that making a lot of money was not sufficient when it fell through my fingers. I learned how to make the right financial decisions, how to send out a dollar that would bring back friends, not one that would follow its friends away from my pocketbook.

I also had to learn a whole new business language and to understand what business ownership actually meant. I started like many others with a home-based business in direct sales with a well-known network marketing company. It didn't get me too far on my way to financial independence, but it gave me the first basic knowledge about business, and I'm grateful to this day to my mentor who showed me the first steps. Especially because I had a huge disadvantage over Richmond natives - I didn't have any friends or relatives in the city who had known me my whole life. So I had to learn very quick to become good at talking to strangers.

When I was offered a position as an independent contractor with a life insurance company, I jumped at the chance of making my own hours and writing my own paycheck, based on the effort I was willing to put in. I doubled my income and within less than a year, achieved my first major goal I had set since arriving to the US: home ownership. 

I understood that knowing what to do from reading books was not enough, unless I acted on that acquired knowledge. Therefore, I built a few solopreneurship businesses, some more successful than others. I learned from each experience and I adapted. I felt stronger with each lesson and new doors opened with each pivoting moment. The field that attracted me was always the financial one because I learned that by sharing my knowledge in this field with others looking to build businesses in other fields, can lead to their success and set them on a path to their own financial serenity.

The hardest lesson to digest, when talking to other women about their finances, was the fact that most women are uncomfortable even thinking about their money, let alone talking about it. I made it my mission to help women (and a few good men) build better relationships with their money.  

STEP 5: Teach others how to achieve their goals, and partner up for accountability

Goal Achievement Month - Chapter 3

STEP 3: Make a flexible plan on how you will get it done

Armed with the knowledge on what we needed to get us to live together in the US, my husband and I got married and applied for my spousal visa, all in one day. And less than 3 months later, I was landing in Richmond, VA - my new home across the Atlantic. 

After I landed in the United States, I had a steep learning curve to adapt to a new country, new rules and new people. Many things that I had been used to for my entire life were done differently here. I adapted to most changes in a short period of time, the easiest thing to adapt to being the American version of the English language that I had studied throughout school. In my quest to build a life in my new country, I left behind everything and everyone who had been important to me. So I made a decision to make that sacrifice worth it by building a life of financial serenity. My definition for it at the time was to be able to do what I wanted when I wanted.

Coming from a country where everyone had a job working for a state-owned company, and then seeing a few "adventurous souls" be brave enough to become entrepreneurs - the foreign word was adopted into the Romanian language, since we did not have a term for it - I thought that finding a corporate ladder to climb on will take me to the ultimate goal of financial serenity. I was also naive enough at the time to believe that I was now in a country where my own achievements would be recognized and I would get rewarded for them with the jobs of my choice and the salary that I wanted. Coming form a country where it is more important who child, nephew or friend you are, that your competence in the field, I thought I was in a place where the fact that I didn't know people was not going to be an obstacle.

Wow, was I wrong?! I had to learn very quick that the corporate ladder was not the spot where I wanted to hang out, and that people promote you or not based on them liking you (or not) just as much as back home. And I also learned that I could not stand incompetence anymore than with my former employers back in Romania. So, after biting my tongue one too many times, I started looking for a better way. I had learned even before coming to the US that this is the land of opportunity, and I was convinced that mine was out there - I just hadn't found it yet. So I crossed off corporate career from my plan and moved on to the next idea. 

Goal Achievement Month - Chapter 2

1    STEP 2: Acquire the knowledge of what you need to accomplish the goal

I had a goal and I had a vision on why I wanted to achieve my goal. I could see myself living in another country and - most importantly to me at that time - not living in Romania. I was speaking this into being, I was acting as though it was a given. Even though initially I had no idea how I was going to accomplish my goal, I was convinced I would do it. At the time I had conversations with a friend and we both said we would leave the country, but we had different visions of what that would look like: I said I would live in another country for the rest of my life and only come back to visit; she said she would go work and return with the money to live in Romania. And we both got our wishes.

After coming home from the college experience in England, I started sharing first with my parents, then with my friends, my intention to leave the country after college, at some point. The strange thing about sharing my goal was that as I was repeating it, I kept getting more certain of the outcome – still without knowing when, where or how. And the interesting thing is that once they saw me so determined and sure of my idea, my parents started believing it would come true; and they also started acting like it was going to happen. Because of my college experience, the first logical choice was England, or somewhere else in Western Europe. After all, there were a lot of Romanians living abroad in that area, including a few of my friends. My ultimate goal became moving to the United States later in life, alter some years in another country or two.

And then my plans got changed when I met my now husband, and we wanted to be together. The goal now became moving to the US, without spending time in other countries, so we could be together. This also started as an idea and was soon developed into a plan. In a time where the information was not as easily accessible on the internet, I managed to find out details on immigration and the INS (now USCIS) rules. Following the online directions on their official website, my husband and I got married in Romania and applied for my spousal visa. Thus, 2 months later I joined him in Richmond, Virginia; and have been here ever since.

It was a stressful 3-4 month period once we decided to get married because we had to figure out the legal requirements for my transition from Romania to the US. I found lots of horror stories online about how hard it was and how long it took to be able to get there. All we knew at the time was that we wanted to be together and him living in Romania was not an option - language barrier, work challenge and lack of a personal place to live. 

I relentlessly scoured the internet and connected to people within Yahoo groups (Facebook was not even a dream at the time) and learn from their experiences what not to do. I also read anything and everything there was to know about immigrating in the US as a dependent of a US citizen. And then, armed with that information, I coached my husband on the documents he needed and on the steps we had to take. 

Goal Achievement Month - Chapter 1

STEP 1: Figure out what you want – beyond doubt (a.k.a. your WHY)

   
    When sharing my recipe for achieving goals, I want to start with the biggest goal that I set for myself and describe the way I managed to reach the goal. Of course, as they say “hindsight is 20/20”… so after reading many books on how to get things done, I realize that I had followed the steps without even being aware of them at the time.

When asked what my greatest achievement is, I always say that moving across the Atlantic and building a life for myself in a country where I only knew my husband. It may sound crazy, or scary, or too hard. Well, 15 years later, I am here to tell the story. I have achieved numerous goals since then but still feel this to be the greatest one, since it brought about the most radical change.

I was born in a small country in South-East Europe, Romania, in one of its largest cities. After finishing college and working for a couple of years, I moved to the United States to follow my husband. I was always an overachiever, I guess people would call me. Through my school years I was always at the top of the class and passed all my exams with flying colors. These seemed like reasonable things to do at the time, so I never really considered these major goals to be achieved. After a scholarship earned in college that sent me to England for 3 months, I realized there were things I wanted to achieve and a life style I wanted to live that were outside Romania.

The first step toward achieving my goal was setting it. And the very first thing to do in this case, was to get the idea – I found the one major thing I wanted to accomplish: moving to another country to build a career or a business. At the time this idea first came to mind I had no clue where, when or how I was going to do this. Looking back I understand that when you are young everything seems in a far distant future. And that was my first thought.

Once I came home from the college experience in England, I started sharing first with my parents, then with my friends, my intention to leave the country after college, at some point. The strange thing about sharing my goal was that once I started repeating it, I kept getting more certain of the outcome – still without knowing when, where or how. Because of my college experience, the first logical choice was England, or somewhere else in Western Europe. After all, there were a lot of Romanians living abroad in that area, including a few of my friends. My ultimate goal became moving to the United States later in life, after some years in another country or two.

Money Mondays episode 5

https://www.spreaker.com/show/money-mondays

We talked about different types of insurance, and which ones are necessary to have and which are nice to have. And if you listen to Regina's story, you can learn how all the best laid plans can go awry and sometimes you have to pick yourself back up and keep going.

Money and dieting?... Well, they have something in common!

Have you ever thought about your dreams coming true? If money were no object, where would you be now? What would you do? What are you passionate about? And would you do that for free?

If you want to honor your passion, think about it every day, imagine yourself living your passion and let your brain live it as if it were true. And then, while your subconscious mind works on a plan to bring your passion to life, start looking at your finances and make a plan.

If you think your situation is hopeless, you are not the only one. If you have debt you can’t even see yourself paying off, you are not alone. I understand it is not pretty, or sexy, to be thinking about the debt; but I can promise that ignoring it doesn’t make it go away.

If you were ill, you would go see a doctor and follow her instructions to get well, right?! Well, if your financial self is ill, you also need to follow someone advice on how to get well – only this person is a money doctor, and not a people doctor.

Finding a financial coach, a prosperity mentor, a financial adviser is the first step in working on a solution for any and all your money problems, challenges and frustrations. And just like a personal trainer, this coach’s job is to help you get on a workout schedule, also known as budget. And not just to show you what your budget should be, but also to hold you accountable to stick with it in the long run.

If you ever wanted to look like a supermodel, then you should know that takes a lot of dieting. Well, in finances, that is the equivalent of budgeting. And just as a supermodel makes a lot of money at the end of years of dieting, you will have a lot of money at the end of years of budgeting.

Now, I’m not suggesting a long and depressing fast. I’m merely talking about some smart planning, and sticking to the plan. And the first step in that plan is having a SMART goal written down. 

(in 2 weeks we will go over what a SMART goal is - stay tuned) 

Planning Your Way to Success, What are your Career Goals

Successful people have goals, but even if you have a career or are already in a professional position, you may struggle on occasion with progressing along a path upwards in your career. It can be easy to feel suffocated, confined, or lacking direction when it comes to navigating through a career. To keep from veering off track, it is helpful to set up career goals. Career goals will represent objectives, benchmarks, and milestones in your career. Let’s take a look at some beneficial career goal examples to set you up for success with your chosen field. 

Can you schedule your career? Are there specific achievements you need to achieve in your 20s/30s/40s/50s to accomplish your dreams? Yes and no.

How to Set A Career Goal

Before you set a career goal, there are few things that you should know about goals, as they are set on various levels.

1. First, decide what you want to do, accomplish, or be in life.
2. Secondly, split your larger goal into smaller and more achievable goals or targets that you have to achieve.  This will make accomplishing your goal easier to manage and will help streamline the process into reaching your ultimate goal.
3. Finally, you will want to formulate and develop a proper plan for your goal.  It can be best to establish a step by step plan that will enable you to start working towards achieving it.

6 Career Goal Examples

Increase Performance Metrics:  Certain industries and companies use performance metrics when they evaluate an employee’s performance, productivity, and effectiveness levels.  Metric numbers generally measure things such as customer satisfaction, organization performance, employee competence, and cost management.  Metrics are usually measured on a weekly basis, but they can be measured daily as well.  A good career goal could be to increase your performance metrics, which will help show the value that you bring as an employee to the organization or company that you are working for.

Earn a Promotion:  It is always a good feeling to get promoted, and a promotion involves careful planning, commitment, and execution on your part as an employee.  For instance, you may need to: do additional work, take on more projects, develop relationships with other department members, and update your resume.  A promotion will generally be a long term goal that you can work towards overtime.

Earn a Management Position:  After you have been working with a company or business for awhile, you might have an itch to advance in your position.  If your career goal is to earn a management or an executive position, your goal could range from lasting 6 months, to 5 to 10 years depending on the field that you are in.  This type of career goal can require a series of short term goals to help you reach the position you desire.

Start a Business:  A lot of people associate success with branching out on their own, and a viable career goal, in that case, can be to start your own business or open your own practice to become your own boss.  Many people, generally between the ages of 18 and 34 have the desire to start a business if they have not already started one.  When opening your own business, it can be helpful to outline a series of short term goals that can help you get to where you need to be.

Get a Job:  For many people, especially in this economy, an example of a career goal might be obtaining employment and finding a career.  If you are looking to find employment, there are plenty of short term goals that you can develop that can be completed before you reach your final goal of obtaining a career.  Remember to be patient in trying to find a job, as it can be a long but rewarding process.

Earn A Degree or Certificate:  Earning a degree or a certificate is a great step into jump starting you career goals and putting you on a path towards success.  Most careers require that the person has specific knowledge, education, or a specific degree when it comes to furthering or advancing in their career.  Once you are able to obtain proper education, you can look to increasing your career goal options.

More Career Goal Examples

• Switch jobs to one that you know you will enjoy more.
• Identify personal boundaries at work and know what you should do to make your day more productive and manageable.
• Communicate more effectively at work.
• Feel happier and more positive during your workday.
• Develop more friendships at work and try to be less competitive.
• Double your sales or productivity, depending on your job.
• Pick up and learn a new skill.
• Set your eye on a specific award at work and go for it.
• Be more organized with your daily goals.
• De-clutter your work space and keep yourself organized throughout the week.
• Partner up with another person to increase productivity.
• Find a mentor or become a mentor.
• Be known as an expert in a certain field or area.
• Manage your clients better and more efficiently.
• Create a website, promotional material, or social media page for your business.
• Improve company profitability by a certain percentage.
• Delegate work and tasks more effectively to increase your own productivity.
• Send thank you notes to staff, clients, and managers.
• Take a vacation and log off from work to fresh your mind.
• Learn how to network better and attend networking events.
• Learn how to reduce work hours without compromising productivity.
• Go after the career of your dreams to find work in a field that does not feel like a job.
• Stop micromanaging your staff.

• Reduce personal or business expenses by a certain percentage.
• Join Toastmasters to improve your presentation and speaking skills.
• Delete old emails and old files from computer to make yourself more organized.
• Learn how to say “NO” politely at work.
• Learn how to under-promise and over-deliver with clients or managers to surprise them.
• Develop relationships with coworkers and clients to make work seem more enjoyable.
• Become more creative and break out of your rut.
• Build a personal brand or an online website or blog.
• Do things that will make you feel more energized at work.
• Ask for a raise.
• Update your resume and cover letter.
• Send out a certain number of resumes each day to potential employers if you are looking for a job.
• Ask your boss for more responsibility or more clients at work.
• Ask to be trained more for skills in a new department.

Tips for Setting A Career Goal

1. Know your strengths and weaknesses.  There are probably certain areas of life where you can better excel professional than others.
2. Know what you overall goal is for your career.  Ask yourself questions such as, “Where do I want to be in “X” number of years?”  This will help you know where your life is going and how it will intersect with your career.  There may be other goals that you will be interested in pursuing with time, so develop a time frame for your goal.
3. Know the steps you will need to take to achieve your goal in “X” amount of time.  Consider any road blocks you may face and think about how you will overcome them.
4. Be sure to measure the progress of your goal each week or month.  This will help keep you motivated and provide you with a sense of accomplishment.

Plan Accordingly

A career is one of the most important things in your life, and with the properly planned career and career goals, you will be able to achieve what you want from your career in the most efficient way possible. 

Contact us for help in defining your career goals. I will be excited to learn of what the future holds for you!

Thanks to udemy and their blog of the amazing research!