Making next year better starts now
Treat yourself to a brilliant Christmas with a little goal setting
Have you ever wondered who Murphy was? You know the guy from Murphy’s Law “Whatever can go wrong will, and at the worst possible time”? We’ve all had those days – when everything goes wrong. Anyway, having one of those days myself made me wonder about this Murphy guy – was he really unlucky, the kind of guy who all the bad stuff happens to? According to Wikipedia, Murphy’s Law might have been a misremembered and misattributed quote by Mathematician August De Morgan. And isn’t that an example of Murphy’s Law - having something you said become one of the most quoted axioms in the world - except misquoted and attributed to someone else? Anyway it’s almost the start of a new year so here are some tips on setting yourself up, so that when life smacks you down you get up twice as hard. (Did I just mangle someone else’s quote? Well tough.) Let’s talk about goal setting.
“The Predictable Shocker Pad”
Life happens – your geyser could burst, a tree could fall on your wall, the fridge could give up the ghost in a heat wave, in fact there are a multitude of things that might go wrong. You could shut your eyes tight and try not to think about it, or you could make sure that you are as well-prepared as you can be for when things go pear-shaped. Author Pam Young wrote about this in “The GOOD Book: Get Out of Debt”. She suggests creating “The Predictable Shocker Pad,” a financial buffer between you and those inevitable eventualities.
Make it a goal
Being prepared will mean that you’ll be in a better position when unexpected things happen. And that will mean that you can recover quicker. So if you have a special fund set aside for nasty surprises, like your geyser bursting or whatever, it might mean you won’t have to move into your mom’s basement if life goes bad.
What is goal setting?
Goal setting is the process of sitting down and thinking about the things you want to achieve and writing them down. You could set goals in terms of your professional life, personal, financial, physical etc. If you are asking “what is goal setting?” you are probably also feeling like you are bobbing around on the sea of life like a ship without an anchor. Maybe it’s time you set some goals for yourself so you can feel like you are on course to specific destination. And when your ship gets struck by lightning or a tsunami or something it will be better for you if have invested in a lifeboat. So why not make that a goal for 2016?
Why set goals?
Successful people in all walks of life set goals – from politicians to business people, artists or religious leaders. Goal setting will give you something concrete to work towards and focus your energies on. By setting out smaller goals on the way to your main goal you will be able to measure if you are on the right track and you will be able to celebrate your achievements and feel good about yourself. Go on, buy that lifeboat.
And should your “Predictable Shocker Pad” not yet be padded enough, you can rely on a boodle loan to pick up the slack.