1. Pathways to Success— Making Successful Choices (lesson #1)
Written By Sissy Osteen, Ph.D., CFP
PowerPoint by Cindy Clampet
Revised 2017

2. Today you will learn how to:
Explore how you feel about your future;
Think about what you will face as you make changes in your life
Decide some of your future goals
Plan how you will reach those goals
In this section you will learn to explore how you feel about your future, think about what you will face as you make changes in your life, decided on some future goals and plan how you will reach those goals
Dart board activity. Needed: a dart board, 3 darts, several post-it notes. On the back of the post-it notes, write 1 positive or negative life management behavior such as: pay bills on time; get a job; buy everything I want; 1 month behind on the rent; etc. Ask 3 participants to throw a dart at the board, trying to hit one of the post-it notes. Then let them read the behavior on the post-it nearest to their dart. Discuss the relationship of the way some people manage their lives to throwing darts at a board.

3. Where are you now? Where do you want to be?
Do you feel your life is the “pits?”
What can you do to make changes in your life?
People don’t really plan to fail, but many fail to plan.
What are you aiming to do in the future?
Skills are important, but you have to know what you want. Knowing what you want is a goal. Knowing your goal helps you do things to help you reach your goal. Reaching the goal is success.
Discuss how this slide relates to the dart board game as well. People without goals are just like people throwing darts. Without a plan, you will have to deal with whatever life throws at you.

4. Set Goals + Make Decisions +Take Actions = SUCCESS!
Life is a series of choices. Making a decision can be hard to do. Often there are many things to choose from. When looking for a job ask yourself:
What are your skills?
What do you like doing?
What jobs are out there?
Where do you want to live?
Can I live on the wage I will get paid?
What are the job benefits?
Life is a series of choices. Finding a good job, how to stretch the money, where to live, saving money, what to buy are all choices we have to make.
Using good decision making and action-taking can help us have successful lives.

5. Handling Money = a series of choices
You are being tempted to spend money all the time! Every time, you make a choice….yes, to buy, or No, I’ll wait to buy later.
Ask yourself—Do I NEED this item or do I WANT it?
None of us has enough money to buy everything we want. First we must think of our NEEDS.
A Need is something we literally need to survive.
A Want is something we would like to have, but we won’t die if we don’t have it.
Food—a need
A steak dinner out at the finest steak restaurant—a want
Clothes to cover you up—a need
The newest jeans and sweater from the high-priced store—a want
A used car to get to work—a need
The newest sports car with all the extras—a want

6. How would you spend $100?
Many things influence the choices we make. Our age, values, family, friends and what has happened to us in the past
A VALUE is what we think is important. No two people have the exact same values. Values affect what we do.
What are the ways the class would spend $100?
Discuss how you would spend $100. Discuss the different values which might be present in the spending of that money.
Ex: spend it on a nice night out—value might be recreation/entertainment
Spend it on school supplies for your kids—value: education
Spend it on clothes—value: might be to look good, or to keep warm, depends on what you buy
Spend it on an overdue bill—value: to be responsible to pay your bills

7. Goals—What you want to do.
Goals are plans for the future. Each of us has many things we want to do.
Some goals take a short time to get done, less than 6 months.
List some of your short-terms goals on the chart in your booklet.
Answer these questions: Goal date to reach the goal what will it cost?
A value is what is important to us. No two people have the exact same values. Values influence our choices.
A goal is what we aim to do. Goals are plans for the future. Each of us has many things we want to do. Some take a short time to complete, others may take years to complete. Many goals have a cost as well. (goal—to buy a car—costs $5000)
Explain to students how to fill out chart on page 5 of booklet.

8. Short-term goals—less than 1 year
Pick two of your goals in your booklet page 5.
How will you reach those goals?
Do you have enough money to reach those goals?
Thinking of short term goals, could you make plans to reach those goals? Do you have enough money to reach those goals?

9. Long Term Goals—1-5 years to reach
Goals that take longer than 1 year to reach are long term goals.
You will need to take more time, money and work to reach them.
Fill out the chart on page 6 of your booklet.
Can you reach these goals? Which are more important? Place a star by two which are the most important .
Some goals take a longer time. There may be more steps to the plan to reach those goals. They may also be more expensive. Fill out page 6 of your booklet.

10. Conflicts…
Many people want things NOW and are not willing to wait until later. The use of credit causes many people to buy everything NOW! This attitude can lead to serious money problems.
In a couple, one person may have different values from the other person. One person wants to buy things now and the other person may want to save money for a long- term goal.
To reach goals, you need to look at the good and bad sides of a possible decision.
Since your values and goals determine how you will spend your money and what decisions you will make, it is important to look at both the good and bad side of each possible decision. In a couple, it is important for both people to be working toward the same goal or they will end up working against each other’s goal.

11. Reaching a goal…
Goal--- Seek Information Compare the choices take action Look at How you are doing SUCCESS!!!
Goals should be realistic for your situation. Do you have the time, skills and money to reach your goal? Or can you get the skills and money? Wanting too much at one time can lead to serious problem such as overspending, money problems, unhappiness, confusion, dissatisfaction about one’s life. To reach goals, you need to look at the good and bad sides of your decisions.
The following steps (on slide) will help you look at your decision. At any time that you feel your decisions are not taking you toward success, you can change your plan of action.

12. A Real Example: Goal—buy a used car ($4000) within 6-8 months
Seek Info—ask for help—learn car repair histories
Compare the choices—begin looking at cars/check condition and prices
Make a plan—work out a budget to save $250 /month and see if owning a car fits the budget
Take Action—Save each month…check on car loans for 3 choices, check condition of choices
Look at How you are doing—purchased a used car. Saved enough money for down payment, insurance and tag, got car loan
SUCCESS!!
Reaching a goal requires many decisions along the way. For example look at Dave’s solution to buying a used car. Dave has planned and taken action to save money to buy a car.

13. Your Own Goal…
Think about one of your own goals and plan how to reach it.
Use the chart on page 9 of your booklet to make a plan
Now it is your turn to think through an important goal you want to achieve in the future. Use page 9 of your booklet to make a plan to reach a goal that will take less than 1 year.

14. Is Your Goal… Realistic—can it actually be done?
Choices I make today affect the choices I make in the future.
Setting goals gives me a plan of action.
I Need to decide what is most important.
Reaching a goal is success.
Realistic—can it actually be done?
Timely—can you achieve it in the time you have allotted?
Can you stick to the plan?
Say—”I CAN Do It!!”
“I know it will take time”
“I will stick with my plan until my goal is reached.”
Choices you make will have a long-lasting effect on your life. The choices you make today can greatly affect your future. A saying “one thing leads to another” explains how each decision affects other choices. When a goal is reached, that is SUCCESS!
Please tell me one important thing you learned today?