How To Achieve Goals (For Real)

At some point in adulthood, making plans becomes a part-time job.

Even plans as simple as Friday night drinks can take an hourlong back-and-forth on a group chat with two reschedulings and someone still cancelling at the last minute.

The problem isn’t that you don’t want to do something enough, it’s that you might be assuming that motivation will make things happen, but it never does. Only good plans do.

When there’s no plan, goals become wishes because they don’t stand a chance against the needs of everyday life – rent, transportation, even random expenses.

Here’s how to plan to achieve your goals.

1. Be honest and realistic.

Your goals need to fit into your reality, so can you really afford to make those plans based on your current finances and lifestyle?

These are realistic goals, for instance:

• Sorting out one major expense instead of attempting five at once
• Finally creating your monthly budget
• Saving for something specific
• Building a fund so unexpected bills don’t scatter your wonderful plan

2. Break a big goal into small steps.

This is the part most people skip, and it’s sometimes why they stop working towards some goals.

Let’s say your goal is to save ₦1,200,000 this year. That’s ₦100,000 a month, which is about ₦25,000 a week, or roughly ₦3,300 a day.

With this breakdown, that goal feels more achievable and you’re reminded that you don’t need to win the whole year today. You just need to win this week, maybe even just today.

3. Build a structure.

Money works better when you make plans for it.

If you want to buy a car, create a Frequently Pocket on your Kuda app to save towards the car daily, weekly or monthly. You’ll get up to 8% interest yearly on those savings.

Pro tip: Give your Pocket an interesting name. That could make it easier for you to keep it going. So instead of ‘Car’, you could call it ‘No more cabs’.

4. Pay attention to your habits.

On some days, you’ll do more. On other days, you’ll do the bare minimum. Both kinds of effort count.

If all you can add to your As You Want Pocket this week is ₦5,000, add that. If you miss a week, don’t give up. Just save the next week.

A fantastic way to automate a good saving habit is to turn on Spend+Save on your Kuda app. It’ll save for you every time you spend.

Your goals don’t fail because you don’t want a better life. You just need proper planning and some discipline. Kuda Pockets really do make that easier. Explore the app now and choose one or more Pockets that will get your savings where you need them to be, whether Spend+Save, Frequently, As You Want or Fixed.