Your Financial Freedom Plan
One of the reasons most people never achieve their goals is because they don’t take the time to make a winning game plan for achieving their dreams. In fact, people spend more time planning their birthday party than designing their future.
In order to achieve financial freedom, you need more than wishful thinking and sincere commitment to make it happen. You need a clear plan and and the right framework to make that plan a success.
Here are the fundamentals:
1. Committing to a daily action
After observing hundreds of online business case studies first-hand, it became apparent to me that there is one KEY element that separates successful entrepreneurs from unsuccessful ones.
It’s called habits.
In order to achieve a big goal, you need more than sincere commitment to make it happen. You need a disciplined systematic approach to realizing your big dream.
This is where habits come in. Habits help us to continue working towards our goals even when we are not motivated. They allow us to transition through our day on autopilot.
Just imagine how your life would change if you devoted a daily practice to work on your goals. How different would your life look if you spent your early mornings doing what is truly important to you…?
Now, if you’ve tried incorporating new daily habits before, you already know that making them stick can be tough.
What frequently happens is that we usually start out strong and then end up sliding back into our old habits after only a few days.
I don’t want that to happen to you.
So before we get started on designing and implementing your financial freedom plan, we need to use a tool that will supports you along the way.
Check out GoalsSoftware.com and commit to tracking your progress daily.
This one little tracking habit might not seem significant at first, but, from my experience, it can make all the difference.
By tracking your progress, you’ll not only see steady gains in your performance and learn what works for you in the process, it’ll also keep you motivated during tough times.
You see, seeing progress in changing numbers creates a motivating feedback loop which in turn creates momentum. You have an immediate sign of every accomplishment and a visible record of your weekly progress. This allows you to compare performance and as a result of it, gain insight into your overall growth trends.
2. Defining YOUR BIG WHY
Setting smart goals is relatively easy – most people set them with minimum difficulty, however far fewer take the time to connect with the “WHY” behind their goals
I believe that “why” we’re doing something is more important than what or how we’re doing it. A deeper understanding of that “why” keeps us motivated throughout a long journey and is the starting point to everything we do.
In fact, the bigger the WHY and the stronger our reason, the more energy we’ll bring towards our goal.
Answer the following questions:
– Why is it ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY that you achieve your goals this year?
– How would your life look (& feel) if you take the necessary action and and achieve your big dream? How would your life look if you take little or no action?
Make the answer to the last question as REAL as you can in your mind; Imagine the sounds, the visual images, and the feelings you’ll experience.
3. Setting Measurable Objectives
Having a clear vision of your dream is important but without intermediate, measurable goals, your chances of turning the dream into reality are significantly lower.
Think of it like this. When you get started with a big dream, you are usually setting yourself for a long journey with a far away deadline. And, if your end date is too far in the future you may find yourself losing motivation and end up quitting.
The key, therefore, is to set smaller goals along the way that can be achieved in a shorter period of time.
Now, there are two key points to consider in this context.
First, your short-term goals need to be phrased in words that give you a clear and concise mental image of their final result (for example, consider the following vague goal “Improve my finances”, and compare it to: “Bring my credit card debt to zero”).
Second, your goals need to be well-quantified and measurable so you can evaluate them at a later stage (the easiest way to make something measurable is to simply associate a number with it. For example, “I will make my 1st dollar online this month”, or “I will have 2 new clients by the end of month”).
At this point you may be asking yourself why we need to worry about all of this.
Here’s the thing. Most new online entrepreneurs dip into the online world without specific and measurable outcome in mind. They create their offer, publish it online, and hope for the best.
But creating a product without a concrete outcome is like having a ship without a port – you’re not entirely controlling the direction of your business.
Your overall outcome, of course, is to win customers over, earn online income, and build your freedom . But the measurable objectives are like mile markers on the road – they allow you to evaluate your progress every step of the way.
In other words, putting concrete numbers in your objectives will allow you to see trends and accurately gauge your success over time. After all, how would you know you’re successful without quantifying what success is?
Moreover, seeing progress in changing numbers can create a motivating feedback loop which, in turn, can facilitate a powerful momentum.
This can be very effective.
With this in mind, think of ONE primary objective you’d like to achieve this month and give it a firm deadline.
4. Establishing a direction
As you already know, there are dozens of ways to generate income online, ranging from advertising and affiliate income to selling ebooks.
The philosophy I advocate is that the best way to generate income online is not from one source but from multiple sources.
In other words, building a DIVERSIFIED online income portfolio.
Why are multiple income sources so important, you ask?
Well, imagine the following scenario. You own a site that that is solely monetized by affiliate commissions. One day your affiliate partner decides to change their commission rate. The next day your online income drops by 75%.
Or perhaps you’ve had a site monetized by advertising that once ranked high in the search engines, only to find it knocked down by a Google algorithm update a few months later. Your online advertising income can potentially drop to zero.
You get the point.
Without some diversity in your online income source you are living at the risk of having “all of your eggs in one basket.”
And that can hurt…
So now that we’ve established that diversification is the way to go, a key question becomes – in which direction should you head first?
While you can kick-start your freedom journey in many ways, I believe the most lucrative approach when you’re just starting out is to create a SERVICE product based on expertise and skills you already have.
Why a service-based product, you ask?
For one, it can generate high-dollar income almost immediately, but more importantly, it’s one of the quickest ways to VALIDATE your offer to world.
You see, your biggest risk in developing an online business is spending months developing something that prospective customers don’t really want. Just imagine writing a very long eBook or creating an information packed video course, only to find out it doesn’t sell at all.
That can be painful.
There’s another good reason to start with a service based product: Your future online products, such as those mentioned above, can be created based on LIVE feedback from followers and paying customers.
With this in mind, create a list of at least three ways you can provide VALUE to others and start defining your offer to the world.
Remember, The goal with this financial freedom plan is not to craft the perfect answer. You can always change direction later. The goal is to just get started FAST and move with momentum in ONE direction!
Yours,
Tal
* If you’re seeking extra motivation and inspiration on your journey of personal growth, I recommend taking a look at my SMART growth goals page, This page offers thousands of goal ideas that can assist in the establishment of new aspirations and the attainment of greater heights in one’s life. In fact, it was instrumental in my creation of a list of 100 goals, which I pursued for a decade.
Chief Editor
Tal Gur is an impact-driven creator at heart. After trading his daily grind for a life of his own design, he spent a decade pursuing 100 life goals around the globe. Tal's journey and recent book, The Art of Fully Living, inspired him to found Elevate Society.
