Everyone is busy finding ways of making more money, saving more money, growing their money. But how many of you have ever taken some time to figure out why you want to make more money? Or what are you actually saving for? In other words, are you using money as a tool or means to achieve some pre-defined financial goals? Or are you treating money as an end in itself and just working to achieve more of it?

Answer to this simple question will determine if money will turn out to be your friend and help you achieve happiness, or if the same money will make you feel stressed and worried all the time and leave you unhappy.

Let’s find out what will happen if you treat money as an end goal. This means that your ultimate aim in life is having “more money”. Unfortunately, this is an unachievable goal and it will only result in unnecessary stress and disappointment. This is because chasing more money is a never-ending journey that only leads to frustration. One can never have enough, there will always be “more” money to obtain, you won’t be able to determine when you have actually earned enough of it as you have not set any yardstick, you are just aiming for more money.

When one considers money as a goal, he/she loses perspective. Money takes on a life of its own, it governs all our thought processes and actions. As a result, money takes control of your life instead of the other way around. “Money is an excellent servant, but a terrible master”.

If your end goal is money, you have lost even before you started. You are travelling on a tricky all-uphill road that has no endpoint or destination and you won’t be able to enjoy the journey because all your attention and focus will be narrowed down to staying on route and keep going.

Sounds disheartening, right? But all is not lost yet, you can still have that happy fulfilling life which you always wanted. All you have to do is shift your mindset a bit and start treating your money as a means instead of an end.

Take some time to find out what you value most in life, and what you are really hoping to achieve with the help of money? Having a clear understanding of what your financial goals are, is the first step of your financial well being. Let us find out how having clear goals can help you in the long run :

• Help You Stay Focus
  Having a goal in sight allows you to remain focused, you will know what you are aiming for and will develop ways to utilize your money effectively so that you can achieve those targets effectively. Goals provide you with a clear understanding of where you want to be, all you have to find is the way to reach there. Your perspective becomes clear in life.
• Give You A Finish Line 
  Realistic goals provide you with the finish line. Having this finish line in place will help you map out the correct course to reach there in time and win the race. Without this finish line in the picture, you will just keep moving in circles and will not reach your destination.
• You Can Monitor Your Progress
  When one has a clear destination along with a map in the shape of goals, it becomes easier to keep track of all the stop points you may or may not be passing along the way. Seeing your success will motivate you and your momentum will help you stay on track. Noticing any misses will provide you with an opportunity to make changes or devise a more effective route for your destination.
• Give You A Reason To Celebrate 
  Having goals gives you plenty of opportunities to celebrate. Reaching the finish line successfully will bring you immense joy and satisfaction. Also, you would have crossed many significant milestones in this journey before reaching that final destination, you should celebrate each of your achievements because you stayed focused and diligent.

Therefore, goal setting allows you to take control of your life’s direction, also it provides you with a benchmark for determining whether you are performing well or not. So shift your focus and start pursuing goals instead of money, if you want to lead a happy and fulfilling life. Think of money as just a tool that will help you achieve your real goals and not an end in itself.