How I personally love to set my financial goals for a successful year ahead without burning out.

Hi, everyone, welcome back to start here, the very special mini series within Sugar Mama's Fireplay, where I answer your real life money questions with practical, empowering steps to help you build financial confidence and clarity, but most importantly, get started on your own financial journey.

Now, today's question is all around how to get started with your own financial goals.

This is what someone wrote to me.

Hey, Canna, I've heard you mentioned the importance of having financial goals to work on and how you like to do your financial goals.

Differently, it sounds like you must do them a bit spiritually.

Now, I've never actually had any financial goals to work on before, but I'm feeling super inspired being the start of the new year, and I really want to improve my financial wellbeing.

So how do you recommend I get started with my own financial goals?

Now?

I love this question because it's honest and it tells me that this particular listener is ready to take their financial future seriously and that their journey is not just about ticking boxes or you know, looking at their list of things to do for the year, but they're ready to actually build a life that feels intentional, not exhausting.

Now, for the record, I absolutely hate those generic general smart goals acronyms or you know, those really rigid frameworks when it comes to setting your goals.

And I'm not just talking about those financial ones.

For me, it's about how I personally set financial goals and my personal growth and development goals in a way that really supports my own personal growth my values, but also helps create a sense of peace and harmony in my life, so that money becomes something that actually supports me and aids me, not something that ever actually drains me.

So today's episode, I'm absolutely honored to share with you personally behind the scenes as to how I approach, set, and work on my financial goals for the best success possible.

So let us begin or right step one, I only work on my goals for eleven months.

Okay, this is going to sound a little bit peculiar, but bear with me.

One of the most important things that I love to do is I give my goals almost like a container, like a boundary of time.

So I will only actively work on my goals from the first of January to the first of December, and that's it.

My deadlines up.

You know, the time is done.

I'm finished.

Now.

This may sound a little bit odd, like why would I go and do that?

Why would I cut my time frame to work on my goals?

Well for me personally, I'm sure a lot of people will relate to this as well.

But December is a pretty crazy time of the year.

The energy shifts, the priority shifts.

It's really, for me, a time about family, about friends, It's about reflection, it's about celebration.

It's about letting go and letting my hair down.

And you know, I never want to be in a position where I feel this pressure from myself because I haven't quite finished my financial goals and at a time where I need to be thinking about my kids and school, holidays and seeing my friends, then beating myself up because I haven't actually finished my goals and I'm actually running out of energy perhaps and really actually needing a rest and to be heading to the beach.

I don't want to put myself in that position where I feel bad about myself, I feel pressure, or I even feel maybe guilty and a shame that I haven't actually properly completed my goals.

So by knowing that my deadline is the first December, it really does change my attitude and my mindset towards my goals.

And I'm a lot more respectful of the time that I have available.

And you know, for me, knowing that I only have eleven months to work on my goals, it creates this very valuable sense of urgency in my life.

I am way more focused.

I am really intentional with what I want to do and why, and I tend to get a lot less distracted because the clock is ticking.

You know, I need to hit the ground running and make great progress.

And you know, when I'm feeling motivated inspired, you know, make hay whilst the sun shines.

So if this feels new to you, but you're curious and you'd like to maybe think about trying this and giving yourself this limited timeframe to achieve your goals, you might want to maybe ask yourself this simple question to help I guess start the creative juices flowing, and that is, when do I want to really push myself to the goals that I have for twenty twenty six and when do I actually want to press pause or perhaps even press end for the year.

You know this one question alone can really help you understand how you want your year to look and how you want to feel throughout the year, particularly when it comes to the realistic times of when you are going to need to have to press rest or even perhaps even reset and recharge.

Step number two is I choose a really beautiful balance of mixed goals.

Now, when I sit down with my journal, which is actually this year a part of my twenty twenty six diary to help me stay organized, I ask myself these three questions.

Which goals will light me up so that they to the point where they almost like scare me with a little bit of nervous excitement.

Which goals will support those long term financial security and independence like my fire goals and my big fire picture.

And which goals will stretch me just enough so that I grow in the right way without ever tipping me into the point of burnout.

For me, balance is matters.

Balance though for me is very much about flow.

I don't really believe in work life balance, but I believe in work life flow.

There are times in your life where there is a dominance towards work.

There is a time in your life whether there is a dominance towards say, for example, spending time with family or with friends.

So for example, I love to pair my goal, so I will pair a passive income goal or a wealth goal with a lifestyle goal.

So I will have a passive income goal of say everyone knows I've shared this many many times, but say two hundred thousand dollars a year.

But then I'll also have a health and fitness goal where I work on my strength, I work on my endurance, my resistance, the weight training.

I'll also have goals around, say get reduction, like trying to pay off our mortgage, but also have a goal joy based or a goal around that's very grounding, like a meditation goal team with say a holiday goal.

You know, a growth goal is something that really does help stabilize me, you know, and makes me feel strong and secure and resilient, which I think a lot of people need in their lives, particularly after going through what we've experienced from twenty twenty five, particularly towards the end of the year.

And a great goal, if you're thinking about a goal that will help stabilize you, could be something as simple as rebuilding your emergency money.

You know your financial plan and might say financial plan, your financial strategy, your financial gain plan should really be focused around supporting the life that you want to live, not about ever punishing you into submission.

And if this feels overwhelming, can I recommend you start really small with your goals.

Don't give yourself lots of them.

Maybe just start with just one simple goal that you'd like to work on this year, a goal that makes you feel safe, stay and even a sense of like financial harm in your life.

And then that one goal is enough.

You don't have to overload yourself.

And for the record, I never have more than five goals at any time.

Step number three is my goals are always written, and they're always written before the year actually starts.

So yes, in December I already wrote down my goals.

Now I'm very old school, but I love writing things down, not on a computer but actually pen to paper, you know, as I've just mentioned, I use like a dedicated journal, which is part of my twenty twenty six diary, which is something slightly different than I'm doing this year.

And I love to write my goals before the year ends, so that when January is here, which it is, I am not thinking, I'm actually already executing I've hit the ground running and I am already on the first of January working on those goals.

So if you are someone who's got some goals already that you're thinking about for the year ahead, amazing promise me you will go and write them down.

And when you find that you write them down, there's something quite powerful within you that happens.

There's a bit of a shift.

It really does help clarify your thinking when you're putting pen to paper, and it forces you to think honestly about what your priorities and what your values really are.

In fact, as you're writing your goals, you might actually realize they might even need to be slightly tweaked or changed, or perhaps change the deadline, or perhaps change them completely.

You know, writing your goals down means that you know, if you're feeling vague, you'll suddenly have this amazing sense of clarity.

You can actually start to get so much clearer about your hopes and start shifting them into promises and commitments within yourself, and it gives you something to come back to as a point of comparison if you're ever feeling a little bit flat or your motivation levels are dipping and for the record, these goals aren't just random or herd mentality goals like the generic ones that think, oh, well, my best friend's doing that goal, I should probably go and do the same.

Got to be sort of your big picture vision goals, goals that you know, light you up, where you see yourself, where you would feel really proud about yourself in the future.

So base that your goals around that big picture, that long term vision of yourself.

You know, this for me has included, you know, building a passive income of two hundred thousand dollars a year.

Another goal of mine is to be mortgage free.

These are obviously long term goals, not goals to twenty twenty six, but goals that are all in alignment to that big picture.

And of course you know, at the end of the day, my big goal is about creating flexibility and freedom and that financial harmony and peace for my family well into the long run.

So if your goal doesn't serve that big picture, that big vision of yours, I highly recommend just pausing on it and questioning it and perhaps dissecting it, examining it, polishing it up, and tweaking and changing it as many times as you need.

To until you feel like, right, okay, that goal is now the right goal for me, and I'm seriously ready and excited to get it started and embrace the journey ahead.

And this alone, again can really help eliminate the distractions that naturally come away, like those shiny object syndromes which we are all guilty of.

The next step, step four is every goal of mine has a deadline and a season.

This is where I think a lot of people can sometimes go wrong or make it rod for their own back when it comes to their goals.

You know, when they set their goals, they don't actually allocate a dedicated amount of time, energy, or even make sure it's been put in as a priority.

Now, I don't work on all of my goals at once because if I do, I get really burnt out, and to be really honest, it can actually impact my mental health because I look at my goals and think I'm barely making any progress with all five goals, and I start to feel really flat.

I start to feel really irritated myself, and I can almost kind of get become a bit of a rebel and sometimes even self destruct.

So because I'm aware of this, I instead choose one priority goal at a time, I give it a clear, realistic deadline, and I allocate a specific season of the year to work on it.

So, for example, I might focus on reducing the term of an investment loan that I have, and this is actually one of my goals is to put a lump sum towards this particular investment loan, and it's not a huge amount, but it's an amount will help mean that this investment loan is actually paid off.

Then my big picture goal deadline.

Now, because it's just one goal for me to focus on, it feels so much more achievable.

It's actually going to help create a bit of an early win for me because it's one of the easiest goals for me to sink my teeth in.

And it also means that the quicker I achieved that goal, it's going to free up my cash flow faster, which can then mean that that new money that's been freed up can be channeled into the next biggest actually technically the next smallest goal of mine.

Now, whilst I'm just sinking my teeth in one particular goal that I'm focusing all of my energy on, the other goals are still being achieved and worked on, but they're doing so in a sort of quiet, dark horse background manner, and this is quite often through automation.

So, for example, whilst I'm focusing on reducing the investment loan term, you know, I've got salary sacrificing set up.

I've got extra mortgage repayments against my mortgage.

I am reinvesting all of my dividends.

I've got within my budget a savings plan to help make sure that our emergency money is at the level where it should be, so that once that first goal is done, those resources can then go on to the next thing.

I've got the cash flow, I've also got the mental space, and I've also got the confidence that I've just created for myself from achieving already the first goal on my list of things to do, and it creates like what I call the waterfall effect, where the momentum is intentionally built, it's never forced.

Because the thing with forcing pro and particularly when it comes to your goals, is this can sometimes or quite often lead to burnout.

And this is where I often see financial landslides happen in my own personal life as well as others.

When they really being aggressive and almost like punishing themselves with these particular goals.

This is not what this is about.

It's about enjoying the journey and being really intentional and understanding where your precious resources need to be focused, where you need to harness them, and where you need to actually prioritize the efficiency in your life.

So as you listen to this, what I recommend you do is you look at your goals and you think about which one of your goals you really want to focus all of your energy or say, for example, eighty percent of your energy into getting ticked off your list as quickly as possible, and then the moment you've done that, make sure you put those eighty percent resources into the next goal.

Now, on that quick note, I mentioned that I never have more than five particular goals in my life.

Now.

As tempting as it is, some times I love to add a new goal in the year, I avoid this as much as possible because I actually end up creating so much extra work for myself that is unnecessary.

I will not allow myself to add any new goals until I've worked through all five goals successfully.

Yes, that is frustrating, but I know that I will get distracted and I will actually end up self destructing.

I'm doing all of my hard work, and it also forces me to know that I cannot deviate from those goals, obviously allowing a bit of creativity and pivoting when necessary, but it means I'm completely sure and committed and dedicated to those goals at the end of the year being December before I actually get started.

So it really does force me to prioritize and understand what is important to me and work through that list.

If I want to add new ones, it's very simple.

I need to get these five goals cleared before adding anything new.

Step number five and that is building financial breaths.

Now, this is something I'm consciously adding moving forward.

Between finishing one goal and starting the next, I want to have many financial breaths.

These are really short pauses that maybe go for a week, not for an entire month.

Well, sometimes even I just need a couple of days.

You know, nothing you have started, no systems are allowed to run.

It's a moment for me to just catch my breath, to feel really good about myself, feel proud, acknowledge the progress that I'm making in the background, and allow my nervous system to just settle and recharge.

You could be look at it like a bit of a financial detox.

At the end of the day, we're not machines and growth needs integration.

So if you're looking at your goals and you're finished one and you're about to start a new one, you might want to ask yourself, what does rest look like to me?

What would I personally need or would like to take in between goals that I don't lose momentum at any point.

Now, this is really the secret as to how we build wealth without exhaustion and burnout.

And again it's a point where you can just give yourself permission to spoil yourself.

And that might be something like, you know, taking yourself away for a weekend, or perhaps going and getting a massage, or perhaps doing something really nice where you honor yourself, like buying a new book or taking a hot bath, or perhaps doing something with a friend like going and doing something special like a high tea where you get dressed up and spend some time reconnecting.

Know what you need that helps fill your cup up in an efficient and ideally a financially friendly way that doesn't undo all of your amazing hard work and progress.

Step number five, I go deep, really deep with the Y and this is probably a little bit spiritual.

So for every single goal that I have the five, I ask myself, why does this matter to me?

I mean really, why is this important to me?

How will this support my family?

What pressure is this going to remove my life by achieving this goal?

And who do I need to become by achieving this particular goal?

I will write down all of the answers, and this is where my journal comes in.

You know, I write down everything that comes with me and I take my time in doing this and seeing what flows as the pen hits the paper.

You know, this last question I have to say is really powerful.

Who do I need to become to achieve this particular goal?

Because goals aren't just about the outcomes.

They're about the identity.

They're about the growth.

They're about the investment or the reinvestment or the reinvigoration of yourself.

And as I journal these answers, I revisit them on a regular basis, and I do this every morning, Yes, every morning, at five am, I read my goals and I read my reasons, my big why and not what pressure on myself, but actually to help ground me and to help give me a really strong sense of intentionality and dedication.

And it's something that I find a really beautiful sacred ritual in the early hours of the morning, and it does help create a very strong bond and emotional connection with my goals that actually helps serve me and carry me, particularly when the times get tough and there are setbacks and there are challenges, and that I may even be looking straight in the eye of a bit of a failure coming my way.

But it is a hugely powerful technique and strategy that I use with my own goals as I work through the year ahead step number six, and that is my goals are fixed.

As I mentioned, I'm not allowed to add new ones until the five are completed.

But at the same time, I am completely open when necessary to pivoting.

So this is something I really want to normalize, and that is changing the how without ever abandoning the why.

A perfect example of this was when we plan on renovating our kitchen, which is something I really wanted to do because I hate our kitchen.

It is falling apart, nothing works.

It's actually I feel a little bit embarrassed ab our kitchen, and we ended up pivoting and shifting all of our energy on actually getting construction certificate and DA for our swimming pool.

Now, the goal, really, the big why wasn't actually about a kitchen.

The goal was actually about creating a space for family connection, for lifestyle, creating a space where we could have fun and wholesome fun and also improve our overall health and well being.

Yes, a kitchen does represent that, but guess what a pool does as well.

My kids are learning how to swim, They're going to have fantastic childhood memories, are playing with noodles and pool ponies, And we're going to have wonderful memories and connections of having friends come over for barbecues as we sit outside beautiful home cooked meals and you may be perhaps drinking wine and champagne together.

And you know, we're also going to look at putting in a sauna and an ice bath, which is going to improve our own health and fitness, particularly for Tom, as his job as an equan physio is so physically demanding, you know, investing in our health and well being is even more important.

So yes, this was a pivot, and in fact I actually see it as a pivot towards something that actually is better for all of our family members and will actually serve us well into the long run.

So please know this if you need to pivot with your goals.

Flexibility is not actually failure.

It's I think, highly intelligent and it allows you to see a sense of self trust within yourself.

And then step number seven and this is all about manifestation, visualization and ease.

Now, before I explain this step, I just want to quickly remind everyone I actually offer a Sugar Mama money mindset and manifestation program.

This is where I do a really intense, hence one on one course with you around how to manifest money and how to really build that money mindset within.

So I won't explain the details of this in today's episode because it's a start here one, but please know if you're ever curious and you want to work with me on an intense basis around your mindset around manifesting financial abundance and harmony in your life, there is the opportunity should you wish to actually work with me, So I'll pop the link in the podcast notes for you.

But coming back to step seven, I do a lot of work around manifestation but it's very much done in a grounded way.

I love to visualize getting started on that particular goal.

I love to visualize working through all the challenges and the setbacks, and even those times where I know my motivations may even flatline, I'll visualize myself working through that, overriding that, rising above that.

Even I'll visualize myself completing that goal successfully.

I will visualiz myself really enjoying the results.

So I do visualization around watching my kids jumping in the pool with a pool pony.

I visualize, you know, a beautiful table setting outside in my backyard with all the beautiful succulents and the sounds of the birds, and you know the wind blowing the trees and leaves, and you know the sound of the clicking of the pool gate and the sound of the bubbles in the spa.

I do so much visualization around this, and I can't wait this year to be able to share with you the images of our pool and backyard coming to life and seeing this exact visualization become a reality, which is exciting.

Importantly, I visualize achieving these goals with ease, not with burnout.

This is something I learned a couple of years ago because I was visualizing myself achieving these goals literally passing out at the finish line.

But they had a huge wake up call and I realized, why am I I'm almost manifesting burnout.

So I've been manifesting myself and doing huge visualization work about getting to my goal like completion line, with still some energy, some fuel in the bank to actually do even more.

And this has really again helped my endurance with my goals.

I want success that feels calm, not costly, particularly to my mental health and energy levels.

And another great thing that I do around manifestation is I build a vision board each year and I keep it as my phone or as a screen saver, and also on my desktop at home, my home computer.

And it's a beautiful, gentle reminder of where I'm headed and the decisions that I need to make every single day that need to be in alignment with that big picture, my big vision, my big exciting game plan.

And this is not magical thinking.

It's actually subconscious alignment with intentional action, and it's something I really respect and really grateful for and cannot recommend enough.

So let me know if you ever want to work with me, I'm doing an intense manifestation course around finance and financial abundance.

All right, and finally step eight, my goals are real.

They're not comfortable.

So when I look at my goals, they are definitely achievable, but not to the point where they're cozy or I can get away with being lazy.

I hate laziness.

It's a huge turn off for me.

My personal growth involves me stretching.

If I'm not stretching, I'm not growing.

I'm not getting any stronger mentally and physically.

You know, It's just like strength training at the gym.

If I'm not lifting heavier weights or doing more reps, I'm not actually serving myself and serving my goals.

So I will stop and ask myself this, where will my energy go this year?

Where do I need to focus, Where do I need to stop and take rest?

And when is that rest?

And what's actually going to leave me standing proud when I look back on the year that we've just experienced.

When we get to the end of twenty twenty six, what am I going to look back and think, Gosh, I'm so proud of myself.

I managed to get this done, that done, and that done.

And yes, there are going to be points of some of these goals where I don't complete them successfully.

Some might be in a seventy percent, some might be fifty percent, some might actually be one hundred percent.

But I want to make sure that I feel really proud that I've done the best job possible as I put my hand on my heart.

These turns with goals about designing a year and a beautiful year, not a chaotic year, a year that I'm really proud of.

So for anyone that is looking at doing some financial goals this year, but you've never done this before, please know you are not alone, and there's nothing wrong with never setting financial goals.

You've just never been taught how to do them and how to do them in a right way that really resonates deep within.

For your start here for your own financial goals, follow this simple advice.

Write down your goals in detail, give them deadlines, Write down your true why behind these goals.

Anchor these goals to give them a really big vision, a really big vision that is in alignment to your big picture where you want to see yourself in the next twenty thirty, forty fifty years.

Look at the year ahead of you and look at the different seasons and look at where you want to focus and prioritize certain goals throughout the year, but of course making sure you give yourself mini breathers in between getting finishing one particular goal and of course getting started on the next, so that you avoid burnout, and of course allow both discipline and the beautiful softness to help you see the success and the progress in your life.

Financial goals aren't just about money.

They're about becoming someone who feels calm, someone who feels in control, and someone who feels powerfully capable.

And that journey for you all starts with clarity.

So set aside a couple of hours just for you to sit down and think about what is important for you for twenty twenty six, what's going to leave you feeling proud, what's going to help make you feel so much more excited about the future, and what's going to help eliminate any financial stress or worries, and then you can start building your five financial goals around this.

All right, everyone, thank you so much for listening to start here.

If you ever want to stand in your question for a start here episode, I put my personal email address in the podcast notes below, as well as the Sugar Mama Money Manifestation program.

Al Right, everyone, enjoy your weekend chow for now.