How to eat an elephant? One bite at a time!

Desmond Tutu once wisely said, “there is only one way to eat an elephant: a bite at a time.”

In other words, what he meant to say was that even an enormous goal can be achieved if you take a little step at a time. Bit by bit, bite by bite, you’ll make possible what at first seemed impossible. Most people fail to achieve a massive goal because they try to eat the whole elephant at once.

Your financial goals are similar to eating an elephant. And in order to reach those goals, you need to take one step at a time!

Goal Setting:

The biggest factor for turning your dreams into reality is goal setting. No matter how big the goal, if you can set it, put a timer and start working on it, you can achieve the goal eventually.

Personally, I’ve two goals for the next five years. First, to turn my venture ‘Trade Brains’ into a massive online education platform which can provide financial literacy to thousands of investing population. And my second goal is to write a book. My long-term financial goal is to achieve FIRE- Financial freedom and retire early as soon as possible.

For those who know me, you might have watched me working on this blog ‘Trade Brains’ for over two and a half years now. I always knew that the path is not easy. But bit by bit, I’ve been adding investing lessons which can be useful for the beginners as well as matured investors. Similarly, for my long term goal of financial independence and early retirement, I have been working hard and investing consistently.

My investment strategy is simple. I do not try to get huge returns for a year or two by investing aggressively. I prefer consistent decent returns because I know that the power of compounding is in my favor. Time is the biggest friend for those who start investing early.

Now, why I’m telling you all this?

Similar to my goals, you might also have a gigantic dream of eating an elephant. Maybe you aim to build a huge retirement corpus or to buy your dream house on a beach across western ghats in India or to become a successful investor. And if you want to achieve these goals, you also need to take one step at a time.

If you want to learn how to invest intelligently and become victorious in investing, take your first step. Buy your first investing book and read it. Then read the second book and continue the process. You certainly won’t become an expert investor in a year or two. But with time, practice, and efforts, you will get better than 99% of the investing population.

In a similar way, if you want to build a huge corpus, let’s say for your retirement, you definitely cannot build this huge corpus by a few profitable investments. You need to be consistent in your investment strategy.

I receive a lot of emails from people asking for recommendations of hot stocks that can give them huge returns in the next six months or a year. But setting small goals and investing for six months won’t help in achieving a massive goal. Maybe you’ll win and get good returns on that stock. But this one-time return won’t make you any richer. You’ll probably remain at a similar financial situation compared to where you were last year. For achieving your financial goals, you need a reliable strategy that can give you consistent returns year after year, not just one-time big return by fluke.

It doesn’t matter how big your first few bites are, you cannot eat an elephant with a few big bites. Similarly, no matter how big the returns are, you cannot build your dream corpus in a year or two. Consistent returns are the steps to achieve your goals.

A few other tips to help you eat that elephant

Now that you have understood how to eat an elephant, here are a few other tips that can help you further:

— Set SMART Goals: Setting a smart goal is the first step towards achieving your massive goal. Often, SMART goal is described as (S)pecific, (M)easurable, (A)uthentic, (R)elevant and (T)ime bound

— Start breaking into small pieces: Even the biggest of the objects can be broken down into small atoms. Once you have set your goal, start breaking it down into small pieces. For example, if you are building a retirement corpus, find out how much you’ll need to invest yearly, monthly or even weekly to reach your goal in the desired time frame.

— Stick to the plan: “A goal properly set is halfway reached.” However, the next half is to stick with the goal– which is the toughest. If you are planning to build a corpus of Rs 10 crores in the next 30 years by investing in mutual funds, stick to your investment strategy. Do not stop your SIPs in between because of small-term market corrections.

— Celebrate small wins: Periodically measure how close you are to your goal and each time you reach a milestone, celebrate it. Achieving a massive goal will take time, and enjoying the small wins will keep you motivated to take your next bite.

— Mastermind: Probably the most important but often ignored tip. Keep close to people who encourage you and from whom you can learn. Surround yourself with people having similar goals as that of yours.

Closing Thoughts

The biggest mistake that people commit while chasing a massive goal is taking huge bites initially and try to eat the whole elephant at once. This eventually leads them to burn out too soon. Nonetheless, any big, enormous goal can be achieved by breaking it into small pieces and taking small steps.

Before we end this post, here is the final tip. Enjoy the journey. It’s gonna take time to achieve a huge goal. And enjoying is really crucial if you want to keep going.

That’s all. Take care and talk soon!