This is a guest post from Jackie Beck, who writes at MoneyCrush. She writes about things like Straying from the Path of Intention to Impulse, Saving Money with Meal Planning, and Don’t Forget the Third Option.

Do you have any big financial goals? If so, chances are reaching them may seem impossible at times. Maybe you even feel like giving up now and then.

Those kinds of feelings are only natural, but in order to reach our goals, we have to keep going. And that requires maintaining motivation.

My husband and I are working on a big financial goal right now: paying off our house. We want to be completely debt free, and we’ve been working on that last step for a while now. As of the day I wrote this, we were down to owing $83,687.18.

(Yes, I know the exact balance, and that’s part of the trick to maintaining momentum.) You see, when you’re reaching for a big goal, you’ve got to track your progress.

And you’ve got to feel like you’re making progress. Now I happen to be the kind of person who gets excited at sending even an extra dollar to our mortgage. If I’d sent in an extra dollar today, I would have literally told my husband “Yay! Now we only owe $83,686.18! We’re making progress!”.

(Having a cheering section helps too, so find a buddy to cheer you on.)

My husband, however, is not as easily motivated. $83,686.18 still sounds like a lot to him. And it IS a lot, which leads me to the next method: Break big goals down into manageable amounts.

$41,843.59 sounds a whole lot more doable than $83,687.18, doesn’t it?
And I bet $20,921.80 sounds even more doable.
$10,460.90 might sound downright easy in comparison.

All I did with those numbers was divide them in half several times. Once a number sounds pretty darn doable, make that number your next target.

Then celebrate each step along the way. Paid off that first $10,460.90? Get up and dance around the room, call up your friends and family, or do whatever feels like a celebration to you.

Focus on the right things, too. Spend regular time daydreaming about what life will be like once you have achieved your goal. We often sit around talking about what it will be like to not have a mortgage payment — the things we’ll do, the freedom we’ll have, how great it will feel.

Use every trick in the book, and you’ll maintain your motivation and do what it takes to reach your goal.

Crystal’s Questions:
Do you use this method to succeed? If not, what tricks do you have up your sleeves?