279 | Finish Strong

You still have plenty of time to finish the year strong.

In this episode, let’s talk about some questions to assess where you are with your goals and what needs to continue or change to ensure you finish the year where you want to be.

• • the importance of not getting lax with your goals at the end of the year
  • questions to assess where you are with your goals and how to get or stay on track

Hey friend. Welcome back.

Today, we are talking about finishing the year strong.

When this episode comes out, it will be the end of the third quarter or the beginning of the fourth quarter of 2025. And I find that sometimes, as we come into the end of the year, those last few months of the year, we kind of get lax with our goals.

You’ve got all of the holidays, you’ve got just that general end-of-year lull that kind of comes on, and we tend to push things off until the following year. But this is encouragement for you to finish the year strong.

The year is not over yet. You’ve still got three months to accomplish the things that you want to accomplish with your finances. It is not a given that you have to go into a new year with a bunch of credit card debt from the holidays and stuff like that. It’s not a given that if you haven’t achieved what you wanted to achieve with your savings, that you might as well just wait until the new year.

You’ve got plenty of time this year, so use that time wisely and finish the year strong.

So I thought this would be a good time to check in with whatever goals you set at the beginning of the year. If you set goals, right?

So think about what those goals are that you set at the beginning of the year for your finances. And if you didn’t set goals, now is a great time to set some. What do you want to accomplish with your finances by the end of the year? What did you say that you wanted to accomplish at the beginning of the year by the end of this year?

One of the things that I find often in talking with lawyers is we’ll set goals and then we just don’t think about it ever again. We just put it to the side.

So maybe you set some goals back in January, and you haven’t thought about them in the last nine months. So now is your time to dust those goals off, look at what it was that you wanted to accomplish, so that you can see where you are in relation to your goals.

So the first thing that we’re going to do is think about what those goals were that you wanted to accomplish at the beginning of the year. And if you didn’t set goals, think about what you would like to accomplish by the end of the year.

The next thing you want to think about is whether or not you’re on track with those goals. Are you on track with the goals that you set back in January?

So we’re about 3/4 of the way into the year. Are you 3/4 of the way to your goal? Have you already achieved the goal? If so, that’s great. Are you maybe a little behind? If so, we want to think about how to get you back on track. But we want to be thinking about whether or not you’re on track to achieve the goal or goals that you set at the beginning of the year.

Again, if you didn’t set goals at the beginning of the year, now is a great time to set the goal, and for this step you’ll be thinking about: what is my plan to achieve this goal by December 31st.

The next thing you want to be thinking about is why you are on track for your goal or why you’re not on track for your goal. Something that I always teach my clients is we’re looking for the things that are within your control.

So we’ve had a lot of stuff going on with the economy, with the government, all of that this year. There isn’t anything you can do about that. But what are the things that you can control that are the reason that you are on track or that you are not on track?

Because when we identify the things that you can control, then you can do something different. You can change those things and then ultimately change the results that you get.

So if you’re on track, why are you on track? What is it that you’ve done or not done or whatever? What are the things that you have done that are within your control that have led to you being on track?

I always want you to think about this because it shows you the positive things that you’re doing that are leading to the goals that you have. It shows you how your actions, your decisions, your choices are making a positive impact on your finances and on the goals that you have.

So if you’re on track, if you’ve already achieved the goal, what did you do that caused that? How did you do that? Because now when you identify those things, you see it’s not just luck, it’s not just stuff happening to you by chance. You are making intentional decisions, taking intentional actions that have led to this thing that you wanted to achieve.

In the same vein, when we’re talking about why you are not on track, again, we want to look at the things that are within your control. What is it that you’ve done or haven’t done? What are the decisions that you’ve made or haven’t made that have led to you not being on track with your goals?

And this is not about shaming yourself or beating yourself up or anything like that. But you want to take responsibility for what’s happening to your finances and not just blame it on outside circumstances. Because if it’s just outside circumstances, if it’s just things happening to you, there’s nothing you can do about it. But when we can identify those things that are within your control that you could change, now you’ve got something that you can do. You’ve got some actions that you can take, different decisions you can make that would lead to change in your finances.

And as I said, I know that this has been a crazy year. I know that there has been a lot going on with the government, with the economy, all of that. So that’s not anything that you can control. Yes, that might have had an impact on your finances, but there are still things that you can do.

So I don’t want you to just relinquish control and blame everything on outside circumstances. Let’s look at what the things are that are within your control that have led to you being where you are right now.

All right, and then the final thing is what is your plan to celebrate if you have already achieved your goal, if you are on track for where you want to be, that kind of thing. What’s your plan to celebrate that?

And this is not something that I often talk about with respect to checking in on your goals, but it’s something that I think is important because as lawyers, we tend not to celebrate achievements that we’ve made. We tend not to celebrate the progress that we’ve done. We get to the end goal, we achieve the thing, and then it’s like, check, move on to the next.

So I do want you to take a minute and celebrate being on track or having achieved this goal, even if it’s something as simple as acknowledging it, maybe going out for a special meal, that kind of thing.

It’s important for us to highlight when we have done the things that we wanted to do, when we’ve achieved something that we set out to do, so that we can show our brains like, this is good, we’ve done this, let’s keep going, right?

So if you’ve already achieved your goal or if you’re on track, take a moment and celebrate that.

Now, if you’re on track and you haven’t fully achieved the goal yet, though, we’re not done. You still want to keep moving and make sure that you achieve that goal by the end of the year. So I want you to be thinking about what are the steps that you’re going to take, the decisions that you’re going to make going forward to make sure that you remain on track and you achieve that goal by December 31st.

So what are the things that you’re going to do? What are those action steps that you’re going to take to make sure that you achieve the goal? If you’re not on track, if you are one of the people who set a goal in January and you haven’t thought about it since, right?

You also want to be thinking about what are those steps that you can take to at least move yourself closer to that goal. You may not achieve the goal by December 31st, but you could. So what are the steps that you need to take? What are the things you need to do, the decisions you need to make that will make sure that you are moving closer to that goal by December 31st, or potentially achieving that goal?

Again, we want to be very clear on what those things are that you can do.

And then as stated before, if you didn’t set goals at the beginning of the year and you’re setting a goal now, we’re going to figure out what are those steps that you can take to achieve the goal that you set between now and December 31st.

So that is how you finish strong. Don’t just… give up because it’s the end of the year and the year is winding down and you’ve got the holidays and you’ve got the family time and a little bit less time at work and all of that.

Make sure that you’re still taking the steps that you need to take, making the decisions that you need to make to finish the year strong so that you achieve your financial goals and keep moving yourself forward.

Don’t let the end of the year throw you off track and make you not achieve your goals or not at least make the progress that you could have made. Finish strong.

And if you need help, please feel free to reach out to me. You can schedule a call at rhothomas.com/call.

Alright, so that is it for this week’s episode.

Please take a second, share this episode with a friend or two who could use this information. Sharing is how we get this information in the hands of more lawyers, how we spread this podcast so that more lawyers get the help that they need with their finances. As always, I appreciate your support.

As we close out, friend, I pray that you take the information you learn here, apply it in your life, and open up to the realization that wealth is available to you. As you do that consistently, week after week, you’ll continue to take steps to take back control of your time, build wealth, and live the life of freedom and choice you deserve.

Talk to you later.