Posted by André Nosalsky :: December 10, 2007 @ 1:59 pm

In order to achieve any big goal, such as running a marathon, or winning at your Money Marathon, the actions have to be broken down into small steps – the smaller the steps the better. Breaking the goal down into daily action items is better than having weekly or monthly steps.

When I was training for a half marathon, I adopted and used a program that broke training down to a ½ hour per day during the initial weeks. The ½ hour is a unit that was easily measurable, easily achievable and binary. By binary I mean it has a yes/no answer to the question, “Was the task completed?”

You should do the same with your approach to your Money Marathon. Break it down to a unit that you can easily measure, achieve and report on. Initially you’ll need to focus on your daily habits. How much do you save per day? How much do you invest per day? How much do you spend? What are your daily food, transportation, housing and other costs? How much do you pay towards credit cards per day?

In race training, because of the daily focus, you can spot trouble areas right away. You can prevent serious injuries and find areas where you might be stuck. If you only focus on big goals and half a season goes by, and only then do you notice a trouble area, it might be too late to even compete in the race.

For your Money Marathon you can monitor your daily money health and adjust your finances accordingly. It is also easier to focus on saving and investing a very small amount per day than having to come up with a huge amount at the end of the month. On Lending Club, for example, you can add funds to your lender account daily, and you can reinvest P2P loan payment proceeds daily in $25 increments.

Thinking about your big goals and breaking them down into small chucks allows you to see how you can achieve a much bigger goal which otherwise might have seemed overwhelming.