How To Crush Your Life Goals At Any Age

Setting new life goals can be daunting, especially if you’re older. But here’s the thing, it’s not impossible, and learning new skills, whether it be how to invest in the stock market or training for a marathon, can have unexpected benefits, including boosting our brainpower as we age. 

Gwendolyn Bounds, author of “Not Too Late: The Power of Pushing Limits At Any Age,” found this out firsthand when she took up Spartan Racing at age 47. Spartan Races involve running up incredibly steep hills, crawling under barbed wire, climbing seven-foot ropes, and traversing monkey bars over a dizzying height. In other words, they’re not for the weak. 

Whether you’re taking on a physical challenge, like Spartan Racing, or staring down a big financial goal, like paying down your debt once and for all, learning something new (and changing the way we do things) takes an incredible amount of stamina. 

If you’re thinking about tackling a new life goal, Bounds has three tips to be successful, no matter your age.

BE BRAVE ENOUGH TO BREAK THE “CYCLE OF SAMENESS”

Before Bounds got into Spartan Racing, she found herself falling into what she calls “the cycle of sameness.” This cycle involves waking up, having the same conversations, going to the same job, and eating at the same restaurants, à la “The Truman Show.”

While these are all things we’ve more or less chosen for ourselves, Bounds says it’s imperative to find ways to break that cycle. “We know from the research that chronic boredom has real health risks,” Bounds says. “It can lead to anxiety and depression and even the risk of making mistakes. When you believe there is something untapped in you and you can make the time to embrace that, then that is a very powerful lever that changes and breaks that cycle.”

Believe it or not, we can get into a “cycle of sameness” with our money, too. For example, is your paycheck being direct deposited into the bank account you’ve had forever when you could be switching to a high-yield account and earning more? “Cycles of sameness,” like this one, could be standing between you and a better financial future. 

IDENTIFY YOUR “TIME SUCK SLICES”

We say it all the time…there just aren’t enough hours in the day. But have you looked–I mean REALLY looked–at what is eating up your waking hours? When Bounds took a magnifying glass to her daily schedule, she found a lot of what she calls “time suck slices.” “Time suck slices are these little tiny 5-10 minute sucks of time during the day that don’t seem like a big deal, but if you add them up, you come up with a real great chunk of time that you could have spent investing in something more meaningful,” Bounds says.

By identifying these moments when you’re doing things mindlessly, like shopping online or scrolling social media, you can get back time in your day and put those minutes to better use as you strive to achieve a new life goal. If you’re training for a big physical challenge, these moments could add up to another hour in the gym. Or, if you have a big money goal on the horizon, say for example saving up to buy a new home, you could use the time you’ve saved to do something productive and bring in more cash. For example, cleaning out your closet and listing items for sale. 

KNOW THAT FEAR AND ANXIETY ARE HEALTHY 

Whether you’re talking about Spartan Racing, investing, or learning another new skill, Bounds believes fear is a good thing. That’s because it means you care. But how do we overcome our fears? For Bounds, the key was a shift in focus to what lies on the other side of her anxiety and worry. “For me, if I wanted to keep racing and I wanted to do well, I was going to do my best and overcome my fear,” Bounds says. 

HerMoney CEO Jean Chatzky says she sees this all of the time when it comes to women and investing. Far too often, we’re afraid we don’t know enough and that keeps us from getting started. She encourages women to embrace the fear and uncertainty and instead, learn to invest as they go. 

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