Goal setting to achieve success and your dreams with Zurich

Goal setting to achieve success and your dreams with Zurich

Goal setting to achieve success has always been extremely important in my life. It has helped shape my direction in life, my motivation and my desire to achieve. I remember as far back as the age of 10 when I opened my first bank account and started saving up to buy a computer, I have always had a goal in mind and worked hard to achieve it. I have picked out a few key goal setting moments from my life to share the goals and the achievements.

Getting the best job after leaving university

Financial security has always been very important to me. In my teens, my parents passed away. I was provided for until my education ended but then I was on my own. It was up to me to find the best job possible to provide financial security.

I had chosen a great university and was studying maths so was in a good place to secure that fabulous job. Whilst at university I did a sandwich degree which gave me the best experience for the graduation job process.

I worked hard at university and secured my 2:1. With all my experience and results from university I was perfectly placed to secure my first graduate job with HSBC in London. It was also a job where I would be studying for an accountancy qualification so progression and more financial security was always on my mind. So first big life goal was achieved at the age of 22.

Owning the Perfect house

A goal for many years was to own our perfect house, with everything as we wanted it, but also by creating value and an asset. It was a long journey to owning the perfect house – it took time, planning and the building of money to get there. I bought my first house when I was 25 with a partner, this house was sold when that relationship broke up and a bit of profit was put into a small 2-bedroom house in Knebworth that I owned by myself.

I met my now husband, 2 babies arrived and suddenly the two-bedroom house wasn’t big enough for our family of 4. We chose wisely and moved to a three-bedroom house in the same village with room to extend. Baby number three arrived and a bigger house of our design was now essential and my second big life goal was put into plan.

Our goal was to have a four-bedroom house with two bathrooms and a nice outside space for our three boys. We drew up plans for our dream home and then planned the finances. We released some equity from the house and cashed in a stocks and shares ISA that I had been invested in every month for 12 years. I was so pleased that I had made that decision with my first months’ pay to open that ISA.

By Spring 2003 we had almost a brand-new house after it was extended, redecorated, refloored, new bathrooms, new kitchen, new astro-turfed garden. We had achieved a huge life goal and had the perfect house that was exactly what we needed with our family of five.

Owning my Own Successful Business and Future Goals

My big life goal now is to make a success of my business Mrs Mummypenny. I have a five-year plan of which I am two years into. I want to have turnover of £1m by my fifth year of trading. This sounds ambitious, but I really think with goals you should dream big and work hard to achieve them. Hey if I reach £500k rather than £1m then I have done amazingly!!

My Mummypenny was born as a business in September 2015, so I am half way through year 2 and it’s going so well. Starting my own business was a recent goal. Life with three children and a full-time employed job in London was proving difficult and I wanted freedom, flexibility and control and the dream soon transpired that running my own business was the only way to achieve this.

How will I reach my business goals? Well looking at current trajectory I am doing good, it’s looking like my year 2 turnover will be maybe seven times higher than year 1. Year three should again see a jump of 2-3 times my year 2 turnover. The path to success is looking bright.

How am I going to reach this goal? Firstly, it’s all about taking that big goal of £1m and breaking it down into smaller more achievable chunks. I will set quarterly goals and also weekly and daily goals. For Q1 this year my aim was to make £100 per day. I agreed this goal and shared it with friends and I regularly give updates particularly to other trusted bloggers on how I am doing.

There will be some days where I make nothing but then other days where I might make £500, but the target and goal for the week is always there to make £500. An interesting thought process is this, if I reach £500 by say Tuesday I don’t give up. There is a part of my mind that feels more relaxed but I keep on going for more work. The feeling when you end a week smashing your target is the best feeling ever.

My advice is take a big goal and break is down into smaller more achievable chunks. Make your goals SMART, specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and timely. Tell people your goals who can hold you accountable. They can celebrate your success when you smash your goals and help to generate ideas if said plans are not going your way.

What are your life goals? What goals have you achieved in life that you are super proud of?

Zurich’s Future You Competition

Zurich is helping people to achieve their life goals by running a fabulous competition.

The #shareyourgoal competition will reward four winners with £5,000 to put towards their life goal, a bespoke life-goal experience and a financial assessment. To enter you must share a description, photo, or video of your life goal using #shareyourgoal as part of your post or tweet, or comment on the Zurich Facebook page..

All competition winners will be announced by April 17. Full competition terms and conditions are available on the Zurich website.

This is a collaborative post with Zurich.