If you had created a New Year’s Resolutions list for 2013, your agenda may have included several financial objectives which you had hoped to achieve for the year. It’s a smart idea to write down clear, specific goals if you really want to accomplish your personal and money targets.

However, if you include too many items on your to-do list, you can actually retard your ability to successfully carry out your objectives. When faced with too many options, sometimes your brain can get confused about what is required to be done, and it will short-circuit the action process.

Your brain is a sophisticated computer, which absorbs all the instructions it receives and decides the appropriate course to take. If you provide it with competing requests such as “get out of debt,” “save aggressively,” and “start a side business,” it may not be certain which route to take first.

You may start out by working on an income – generating idea, but then you halt your plans because you prefer to save your salary instead of investing in products to sell. Eventually, you begin to wonder if it’s better to leave your savings intact or use it to pay off some of your outstanding obligations.

Too many goals spoil the plan

While there’s nothing wrong with having several objectives, the challenge comes when your goals require you to go in different directions. In addition, it can be almost impossible to put 100 per cent of your effort into accomplishing more than one task in the limited free time at your disposal.

I have observed many persons struggle to accomplish their money goals simply because they placed too many demands on the table at one time. While all their objectives were admirable and ultimately doable, the problem is that they lacked focus about what they wanted to attain first.

If you realise that you have not made significant progress with your goals because you are working on multiple objectives, then your Money Mission for this month is to get focused. Remove the uncertainty and indecision by concentrating on one priority item for the rest of the year.

Decide on what’s vital

The first step to getting back on track is to examine your list of goals and eliminate any objectives that you may no longer be interested in attaining. Over the year, you may have experienced economic or lifestyle changes which may influence your current financial outlook.

Then consider which item on your list would have the most positive impact on your finances if you worked on it full-time. For example, if your debt burden is overwhelming, your priority would be to find extra money to reduce your loans by liquidating assets or cutting back on spending.

There are some goals that may work together with your main objective. Let’s say that you also wanted to generate part-time income, then you could use those earnings for debt reduction. For your other targets, establish estimated timelines for you to take action later, in order of priority.

Determine your gaps

Once you have settled on your primary objective, then you need to identify the major action steps that are necessary to move you closer to goal completion. List all the missing links that stand between where you are today and where you want to be in the future, and decide how to close the gaps.

For example, if you want to buy a home, you first need to amass enough funds for the deposit. You also have to verify how much you can borrow from a mortgage institution and consider other costs of home ownership. You can download a home goal checklist to guide you at www.financiallysmart.org.

You may have to increase your savings rate or reduce your expenditure to get to your deposit target faster. Call around to different lenders to determine which one has the best plan for you, and make realistic preparations for the increased expenses that will accompany your home acquisition.

Develop tunnel vision

Real life is dynamic, and it will often bestow unexpected developments that can interrupt your plans. Family illness, work discouragements and other personal challenges can take your eyes off the prize, and distract you from persevering along your goal-attainment pathway.

Sometimes a great opportunity will present itself, and you could be tempted to pay more attention to the new prospect than your original goal. For example, you may want to use the money in your house deposit account to purchase shares in a lucrative new investment fund that recently opened.

Whenever challenges arise or competing ideas appear, you need to reassess your priorities to see if your primary goal still remains important to you. Once your initial motivation is intact, then create a tunnel vision for your original plan and advance single-mindedly in pursuit of your major goal.

Copyright © 2013 Cherryl Hanson Simpson. No reproduction without written consent.

Originally published in The Daily Observer, October 3, 2013

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Cherryl is a money coach and business mentor, and founder of Financially S.M.A.R.T. Services. See more of her work at www.entrepreneursinjamaica.com and www.financiallysmart.org. Contact Cherryl