Setting Yourself up for Success in 2016 - Setting and Keeping Goals

I hope you had a great 2015, but now it’s time to look towards 2016. If you are like most people, you had some good times and bad times during the year. Maybe you completed some goals or resolutions, but maybe you also developed some bad or addictive habits. It is easy to get into a routine that you don’t care for, but it is important to understand that habits can be broken, and new goals can be made.

With the beginning of a new year coming up, about half of the United States makes some sort of New Year’s Resolution. Most of these resolutions are not seen through fruition, however, they are much more likely to be completed if they are written down.

Perhaps one of the best type of goals you can make is a flexible or easy daily goal. This can be as simple as doing 5 minutes of stretching when you wake up every morning. The point is, it’s something that starts you right, is not difficult, and feels good having completed your first task of the day. You can also use this for larger goals in tandem. For instance, if you want to lose 25 pounds, you don’t have to do it all in one week. You can, and should, space it out by focusing on modifying the habits that allowed you to gain weight. Maybe it’s as simple as replacing 1 soda per day with a glass of water. Might not be the biggest change, but it adds up over time.

You don’t have to start on every single goal at once. By taking on too much, you risk not doing anything. You can start small, and once you master one goal, move on to the next goal. Or, you might make new goals every quarter instead of just once per year.

A great idea is to reward yourself along the way. Once you’ve completed a month’s worth of your goal, or goals, give yourself a reward. Make sure it’s something you enjoy instead of something that will either break your goal or revert to a habit you don’t necessarily want. It might be something you have been wanting or needing for a while, but the completion of your goal gives you permission to finally do it.

Make the reward another type of benefit. For instance, if your goal is to eat something healthy every day so that you can lose weight, you might reward yourself with that blender or appliance you’ve been wanting. This might help you feel great about all that you have accomplished and will contribute to your success in the end result.

Tracking your progress is another great way to figure out when you earned your reward and how far you have come. If you get off track of your goal, or miss a day, know that it’s ok and keep trying. You've probably made some progress, and keeping a log will help you realize that.

Make each relapse a competition. If you successfully completed 12 days of your goal before you missed a day, try for 15 days in a row. Just keep pushing yourself. You’ll benefit even if you only completed 5 days the next time. Just try to make it a fun competition with yourself and don't get down on yourself for being human and making mistakes. At least you are one of the few people that are actually trying to get back up and keep improving yourself.

Pursuing these goals with friends or family can really help you to stay accountable and accomplish more. It might also be fun to do beneficial activities together and grow together.

Good luck on your 2016 goals!

Andrew Brown

More Articles: 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tasha-eurich-phd/new-years-resolutions_b_4512944.html

http://life.gaiam.com/article/10-tips-help-you-keep-your-new-year-s-resolution

Your 1st Step Toward Creating a Budget

       So you want to gain control of your finances. One of the best ways to start is by creating a budget! In our first book, Personal Finance Under One Hour, we show you exactly how to create a budget from ground 0 and what philosophy works for most people who have mastered their finances. 

       The below is an excerpt direct from the Banking and Budgeting (Second 10 Minutes) section of our book. Please enjoy.

       A good first step when creating a budget is to list your regular income streams and monthly expenses. This might include employment income, rent or loan repayments, food, and gas. Then, look at your current bank and credit card statements to help fill out each section in the budget template. These can help you list your estimated monthly expenses such as food, clothing, and entertainment.

       Next, look through a year-long calendar for large planned expenses like vacations, holidays, birthdays, insurance, taxes, etc. Once the sections are accurately filled out, you can calculate the difference between your income and expenses to show your cash flow (positive or negative) and track how you are doing on a monthly basis.

       After you have a complete picture of what your current budget is, you can fine tune it to increase your cash flow. You can start by keeping a money journal, with your budget goals in mind, and write down everything you spend and earn over the next couple months. This allows you to catch yourself spending money on unnecessary items and keeps you honest to your financial goals. It is a great way to identify certain buckets where you are spending too much and saving too little.

       Using the money journal and budget template, look for ways to make more money and cut expenses. Income and rent are usually fixed amounts and hardest to change; however, you might be able to ask for a raise, change jobs, or move. Food, clothing, and entertainment are usually variable and the quickest things to change since they are directly controlled by your spending habits.

The chart below shows some guidelines for recommended maximums per spending bucket:

       While the picture above is a general guideline, you should strive for smaller expense buckets and larger savings bucket. 

       Was that excert helpful? Of course, that was only part of the Second 10 Minutes section, so it didn't explain everything about budgeting. The Income and Spending (First 10 Minutes) section goes deeper into those parts of the budget. Best of all, this section is available for FREE here. Talk about good budgeting...

        Please let us know how you are using this information to help create your budget! What else would you like to know about? What was the hardest part in creating your budget? Let us know in the comments below and be sure to submit your e-mail to follow our blog and share the posts you like! We have a new blog post every 1st and 3rd wednesday of the month about success in one of these topics: finance, health, relationships, lifestyle. If you would like to write a blog post for us sharing your experience or a review on your product, contact us for more details.

-Andrew and Brendan, 8-5-15

UNDER ONE HOUR’S FIRST BLOG POST - WELCOME

        Welcome to the Under One Hour Blog. We are excited to start this blog for a number of reasons as we believe it can be beneficial for all of our readers.

          First of all, a little background, Under One Hour (UOH) is a non-fiction book franchise designed to give readers a broad, but thorough, overview on a particular topic in less than 60 minutes. So far we have one book published titled, Personal Finance Under One Hour, with many other books coming out soon.

          Our intention for this business is to satisfy the knowledge needs of our society with the time constraints it puts on us. A prime example is our first book, Personal Finance Under One Hour.  Most personal finance books are 300+ pages in length, taking hours to read, concepts are repeated, and the examples used may not always apply to the reader. Most of the advice is great, but people don’t have a month’s worth of free time to red a dull book.

      Under One Hour books, are designed to give the best information in the most comprehensive and condensed way possible.This blog is designed to be a liaison between our readers and content. Additionally, the blog will focus on a topic which will help you shorten the path towards expertise. Every two weeks we will blog about success in one of these topics: finance, health, relationships, lifestyle.

          Hopefully this can be an interactive venture with your feedback on what you want us to blog about, write books about, or other content you would like us to create.


          If you would like to write a blog post for us, sharing your experience, or a review on your product, contact us for more details.