Retirement Journey
(featured column)
The 3 "P’s" Will Help You Achieve Your Goals
by Karen Kuebler
Whenever
I have attempted to achieve a meaningful goal in my life, I have discovered that
I need to apply what I started calling the 3 "P’s" to bring sanity
and reassurance to the process. The 3 "P’s" are Patience,
Practice, and Persistence.
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These qualities can be applied to anything you
are attempting to do that requires work, whether it is finishing a college
degree or trying to quit smoking. Let’s take a look at how these apply
to the realization of your financial goals.
Patience - Achieving your financial goals and dreams will
not happen overnight. As Napoleon Hill said, "You need a plan, and
then you need to work your plan." It will take time to create your
plan, work your plan, review your plan on a regular basis to see if it’s still
on target, and modify plans as required. As much as we would all really
love to accomplish our goals in a few years, this is an ongoing process and
journey.
The best plans will include short term, intermediate, and long-term goals. I
usually call short-term goals those that can be accomplished in 1-2 years. I
place intermediate goals in the 3-5 year range and goals over 5 years are
long-term goals.
We achieve longer-term
goals by establishing short-term and intermediate-term steps to get there.
As you accomplish certain milestones, the classification of a goal will shift
from long-term to intermediate to short-term, etc.
As you review and modify plans you will probably discover goals you forgot. New
goals will come along as you move through life and circumstances change.
The planning and execution of your goals all require Patience. By
establishing more immediate goals, you will experience the gratification and
reward of accomplishment. You will also find that your journey probably
won’t take a straight path toward your goals. This also requires Patience as
you will have to deal with the unexpected and cut yourself some slack when you
veer off your path.
I can’t say I’m the most patient person in the world. I’ve really
had to work on this quality! At one time I created a 40 Months to Freedom
calendar that I kept posted on my wall as I was preparing for retirement.
I would draw and "X" through each month that elapsed. It
probably wasn’t the best trick for developing patience, but like I said –
this is an ongoing process and journey!
Practice – We can all remember some of the things we did
for the first time when we were young and how awkward we felt. Sometimes,
even dangerous! How graceful were you the first time you tried to swim... or,
when you rode a bike the first time did you make it without falling? Even
when we learned to walk, we fell down over and over again.
Start observing children on a regular basis. We can learn a tremendous
lesson in the use of Practice ‘with a smile’ when we watch younger ones
learning something new.
We all admire the skills of Olympic ice skaters, pro-golfers, and fine concert
pianists. They didn’t acquire their skills overnight. They had to
Practice hours on end, for years to achieve their dreams. And, once they
became the best they could be, they still continue to Practice. An ongoing
journey.
And, so it is with our financial goals. It takes ongoing Practice to learn
the skills to achieve your financial dreams – from developing a spending plan,
tracking expenditures, learning techniques to cut expenditures, to leaving the
credit card safely put away and not acquiring unmanageable debt.
Practice has a magical quality -- the more you do it, the easier that thing
becomes that you are working on!
Persistence – This is the quality you need to have when you’ve
lost your Patience and you are sick and tired of Practice. It is
Persistence that keeps you going when you might feel like giving up. Ever
have one of those days or moments when you feel you just can’t take another
step? It is this same quality that drives a young child to get up and
start over when they fall down each time they try to walk.
As you Persist, you will find yourself moving further along your journey. The
road will get bumpy, but your Persistence will keep you moving ahead. As you
achieve important milestones and goals, you will find your resolve and
commitment deepening. It works in a wonderful cycle as you find yourself
becoming even more Persistent. It is this characteristic that will keep
you on your path toward your goals and it is this quality that won’t allow
anything to get in your way of achieving what is important to you.
It is a useful exercise to evaluate your goals on a regular basis. Sometimes our
Persistence might keep us working on a goal that is no longer of value in our
life. I have found myself locked into doing something because I had it as
a goal for so many years, and so I continued to persist to achieve it.
I’ve learned that we can’t allow ourselves to be held hostage by goals
we’ve outgrown. If we develop Persistence as an attribute, we just need
to make sure we are following the right path.
The 3 "P’s" work together in a synergistic way. You become
more Persistent and determined because you are working on something that really
matters to you. It’s difficult to feel determined and persist to
accomplish something you aren’t passionate about.
You
will find that the more Persistent you are, the more Patience you will need
because we can’t control life. Events often don’t occur in an ideal
time table that we have designed. We build our Patience muscle through
continual Practice and developing the ability to accept life as it occurs.
Yet,
with continual Persistence, you can guide your ship. I love the quote
"We can’t control the wind, but we can adjust our sails."
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Copyright
© 2002 by Karen Kuebler
