Knowing what motivates you is very important to keep you on track to achieve your financial goals
After an unplanned and definitely unwanted absence from Hive, I'm finally back. I was dealing with some personal stuff and even though it was nothing too serious it still demanded most of my time and energy for the past week.
This situation was the inspiration for this post because it made me realize why I'm doing everything I've been doing on-chain and-off chain for the past year or so.
I have talked about the importance of setting goals and sticking to them but there is something else that is very important and often overlooked.
Let me tell you a story. My dad was one of ten siblings in a family that was far from wealthy. His dad, my grandfather, worked very hard and was able to give my dad and his brothers and sisters a good life and a good education.
Thanks to that, my dad was able to build a good life for himself and our family. We still weren't rich but my sister and I had a very good life and many opportunities to do anything we wanted in our lives.
My dad is now in his early 60's and although he is doing well, he still has to work to make ends meet and I don't know when he is going to be able to retire. He enjoys his work and is quite good at it but I really wish he could just sit back and enjoy his remaining years doing whatever he wants with his time.
I've been thinking about that a lot recently and the more I do, the more I want to work towards building a comfortable for myself and my dad, so he can finally relax. It is still going to take some time but my dad is in fairly good shape and I believe he still has some good years to live.
With that in mind, I turned this idea into my life purpose and it gave me renewed strength to get by. Whenever I'm feeling down and not very motivated to get the work done, I remember why I'm doing it for or, in this case, who I'm doing it for. This newfound purpose is surprisingly effective at boosting my motivation to get out there and work hard towards my goal.
Having the right motivation is a very important element of any goal. In fact, I believe that setting a target without a strong motivation to back it up is not really a goal.
In my opinion, a true goal must be intimately connected with personal values, no matter what they are. Much has been said about SMART goals and while I vouch for that methodology, I think that value-based goal setting is a fundamental first step in the process that is currently overlooked.
The very word "values" has become a hyped term in corporate and startup culture and I think its true meaning was lost somewhere along the way so I'm trying to reconnect with that and it's working very well so far.
When I think that my goal is to generate 86k USD passively every year, it's easy to get overwhelmed but, on the other hand, when I think about why I'm doing it and the kind of life I'll be able to give to myself and my dad, it gets a lot easier. Rather than thinking about how far I am from that goal, I think about the many opportunities we have in crypto and on Hive. I think about the power of compounding interests. I think about the disruptive nature of DeFi and how platforms like CubFinance and PolyCUB can redefine the financial world and then, suddenly, things don't look as hard as before.
One last thing: don't be bothered by other people judging you over your goals. As I said, I believe your goals must be deeply connected to your personal values and only you can be the judge of what matters to you. It can be helping a family member as in my case, it can be moving out of your country for whatever reason and it can even be accumulating as much money as you can because you like it. As long as it's important to you, that's all it matters.
Final thoughts
Having a financial goal is very important but knowing what is the underlying motivation of that goal is just as important, if not more.
Make sure your goal is connected to one or more of your personal values and that motivation should come naturally. From there, stick to your plan and do the work every day.