How to make your Objectives work, or how to change your mind
By: Joao Lourenzo Cabrita
Tags: Apps, Saving, Digital Banking, Millennials, Gen Z

We have taken notice that more people have put aside some amounts and we asked to younger customers what they were considering to do with it. Because we are a bank specialised in savings and investments we were expecting i’ll invest in Funds, or will start trading in the Stock Exchange and such. But no, not that at all.

The answers were: “To trade my car for an electric”, “to go to Australia in 2022”, “to buy a bigger TV”, “to buy a house with some green” or “too much free time and a baby is coming” (love this one) 😄.

And we thought that is so obvious that and a rainy day is the main reason that people save, then we try to understand what could help them. And it was “help me achieve my personal objectives”. So we did.

The investigation

We crossed this common sense request and start doing further investigation and realised that people were struggling with self imposed regular savings. Is not that they don’t have will or cash, is keeping engaged in a long term that was the main culprit.

The most logic way to achieve a personal objective was to work on the ‘goal setting’. We all know that is very important, but please remember that setting your goal is only one of the steps on the journey to actually achieving your goal…

Unfortunately the phrase ‘goal achieving’ doesn’t trip off the tongue with the same familiar ring that goal setting does. All too often when people talk about setting goals they are actually talking about how to accomplish or achieve their goal.

The mechanics

To set a goal you need to decide what it is that you want to accomplish and — this is the important bit — write it down is the simplest tool. Search and make a honest cost estimation. With this you can set an amount to accomplish it. Set a date to achieve it.

But you want to achieve that goal, don’t you? Sure thing, but it takes a little more effort. That takes application and action. In this case the Best Bank App.

These 3 basis steps are the basis of the onboarding process of the Objectives feature in App Best Bank. Then choose an emoji to make it more visual.

Name > Amount > Data > Emoji > GO

Much has been written on the importance of goals and their relationship to success and happiness. But not all of us understand how to plan them, not to mention taking action to achieve your goals.

The master plan

But how many of us practice this on a daily basis?

To help keep you focused on achieving the objective we have created a plan. Well a couple of then actually:

Monthly plan that simply break the sum into monthly amounts. Jump start plan where you add some money now (taking in consideration the available balance) and adding a monthly plan. Do-It-Yourself plan where you decide upfront and monthly amounts (we still offer suggestions).

In all plans is the client that chooses the day when the amount is taken from the current account to the objective. This way the amount saved is not affected by daily payments.

Keeping up with your Objectives

Now that you first objective has been created you can begin to work on your mindset long before you tackle it. Work on a “glass-half-full” a positive approach to every aspect of your life, including your thoughts about how you will achieve your goals.

We will run the math and let you know if you are or not on track to achieve the amount, each time you enter the App.

Just in case we also you send you an email alert on a monthly basis.

The Big Boss person

All the objectives are fully under your control:

You can end the objective at any time and receive the cash in your current account.

Can make extra payment, and speedup your goal.

Change the amount, the date or cancel the monthly plan.

This allows a control on your ability to achieve them, either by adding cash but if you need cash you can take part of all the amount.

It is important not to procrastinate. The moment when real action is required is often when many goals fall by the wayside. If you don’t start you may never achieve your objective, but start and as we have just explained you can rest assured that you can access you money if needed.

If you struggle to start saving for your objectives, try to make your first step an easy one to commit to.

The path to the ultimate completion of your goal is unlikely to be a straight and simple one. Do not give up when you encounter the first or any subsequent obstacles.

Has BGC has so rightly defined: “Consumers have responded to the COVID-19 pandemic by altering their everyday behaviour in many striking ways — from where they work to how they occupy their leisure hours to what they buy. “. and may we add a lot of old needs and just found needs to travel, explore, settle down, raise a family, change from a diesel to an electric car, and many many simple and complex dreams that are waiting to be done next year(s).

When you complete your goal it is important to reward yourself for this achievement. Take a few minutes to look back over your accomplishments and fully enjoy the satisfaction that success brings. This will train the subconscious mind to focus on activities that produce successful results.

We at Best Bank have took a radical approach to savings, rather we encourage your accomplishment and hopefully achieving some objectives in our App, changes you mindset to achieve more great deeds in your life.

Once you have enjoyed your reward, set your next objective, making it bigger and more challenging than the last.

What’s your current objectives? Let us know…

Kudos: As usual a team work

To the Best Bank marketing team, especially António Martins (CMO) and Celina Velho (Head Digital channels) and Rita Rosado. All partners in crime 😄

Thanks to the UX/UI team in Innovagency do deliver a great visual solution to our vision.

Our IT Team 🙏 in special Cibele, Filipe and Artur. + Mário and team at Nextreality.

Intellectual Kudos

Locke and Lathan study in 2006 “New Directions in Goal-Setting Theory” for the continuous learning process.

Gail Matthews (2015) study on how goal achievement in the workplace is influenced by three key actions: writing goals, committing to goal-directed actions, and lastly, creating accountability for those actions.

Disclaimer: This article express my personal opinion and vision, is not endorsed by Best Bank.