You may or may not remember that earlier this year I set a goal of saving $100,000. Recently, I was asked how I went with that goal and if I achieved it. As this is the final blog article for the year, I wanted to let you know how I went. 

For the past two years I’ve participated in Michael Hyatt’s Best Year Ever online course, setting up to ten goals across every main category of my life - career, finances, family, personal, spiritual and health. 

This year I read Lewis Howes’ [The School of Greatness] book and I came across another goal setting strategy. That strategy, which I named ‘Big Dream Goals’, was about setting some super-big goals. Reading this part of the book came at the same time as I listened to a podcast episode of [Mind Your Business] by James Wedmore. James was talking about manifesting and abundance. I took Lewis’ idea and merged it with James’ philosophy to create a new form of goal setting. This isn’t for everyone and I’m going to add a disclaimer now that this is going to get a bit woo-woo for some.  

You’ve read on, so thank you! I created a super big goal with the acknowledgement that I didn’t have a clue how I would, or even could, achieve it. That was to have $100,000 in my personal bank account by the end of the year. I worked out how much I would need to save each week and discovered that if I was to start at week one of the year, I’d need to save over $1,923 every week for the entire year. 

Taking James’ advice on manifestation, I believed that by putting my desire out into the universe, the universe would return it to me in some way. And that was the key - “in some way”. I had to be open to how that desire would show up. I acknowledged that the goal was pretty far-fetched but I had to believe it would show up in some way. I wrote that goal down and stuck it above my computer to look at on a regular basis. 

No one else would see my goal and thus, I didn’t have to worry about ridicule or explanation of such a far-fetched goal. That was until a former elite sportsperson came to stay. I only say elite sportsperson to authenticate the type of person it was—you can imagine an elite sportsperson would’ve set a lot of goals in their time and be open to some pretty far-fetched ones. Before he arrived, I took the goal down off the wall out of fear of what he might think. 

On his final night we were sitting in the lounge room talking and the conversation moved to goal setting. I decided to tell him about my ‘Big Dream Goal’ and that I’d taken it down. He was very inspirational in his response and encouraged me to not only put it back up, but to own the dream and make it public. 

With my website as a platform, I figured the best way to do this was to write a blog article about it. I had to take ownership that way. It wasn’t a way to make me accountable because this sort of goal was not really a goal, it was a dream. When you can’t track your path to how you will make your goal a reality, it’s not really a goal, it’s a dream. That’s why I call it a ‘Big Dream Goal’. 

I was really nervous publishing the [article]. I watched it go live and then sat back cringing. I wanted to hide for the next week in case I saw someone in the street that had read the article. I received a small amount of feedback online asking me how exactly I planned to save $100,000, and for the most part, people were really supportive and wished me luck. 

After I realised that people weren’t going to criticise me for saying something so ridiculous, I felt really good about writing it. I even started believing that it could come true. And then a funny thing happened. 

Two weeks later I was sitting in a meeting for a project I was managing as a consultant. I was managing that project on 20 hours a week; but the project had evolved and it became evident that 20 hours per week just wasn’t going to be enough. The guy organising the project asked me if I could commit to more hours, which I agreed to. I went home and worked out what my new income would be for those consulting hours. I nearly fell off my chair when I realised that the gross annual income would be over $100,000. I realised that this was how the universe was manufacturing this big dream goal to show up. 

It would have been easy for me to see this as a good opportunity but continued to think with a fixed mindset. For example, “The pay is good but where is this $100,000 going to come from?” or “This is a good start but I want to see $100,000 in my bank account”. When you develop a growth mindset—a concept developed by leading positive psychologist Carol Dweck, which is a belief that you are capable of anything; along with adopting an abundance mindset and believing that you can manifest your reality, opportunities begin to appear everywhere. Don’t become fixated on believing that reality has to show up exactly how you say it has to. Be open minded. 

I’ve learned from listening to James’ podcast that when ‘putting things out into the universe’, or living a life of abundance, you can’t get fixated on how exactly things will look. When you want something, and believe it will manifest in your life, you must be open-minded to how it will manifest. When you do, you’ll be amazed at how many opportunities you receive and how great your life becomes. 

I didn’t achieve $100,000 in my bank account by the end of the year but I did achieve my savings goal—the one I could track a path to. I knew exactly what I wanted in life (across all domains) and my persona opened up to receive new and exciting opportunities. This was the big lesson for me. When you create some success, it snowballs and new opportunities arise—opportunities that you likely hadn’t considered. But with a clear image of what you want and why, you can gratefully accept or decline those opportunities.  

What opportunities have you received by adopting an abundance mindset?

Leave your answer to that question in the comments section below.