Are you setting goals without truly knowing whether they are for short-term happiness or long-term fulfillment? What even are your goals? Do you want to be a self-made entrepreneur? Or maybe you want to settle all your debt so you can travel the world.
Goal-setting is a crucial part of becoming better within yourself. They can enhance your personal well-being, financial situations, career, health, and more.
Short-term and long-term goals go hand in hand with each other. Short-term goals are great for when you want to accomplish things that will benefit you in the long run; they set you up to achieve greater things. Your long-term goals, on the other hand, are your dreams and your future. What is it that you want the most 10–20 years from now? That’s a long-term goal, and you work towards it every single day for most of your life.
Now let’s define what these truly are.
SHORT-TERM GOALS
These are the goals that can be accomplished in 10 minutes to less than a year; they are easier to achieve. They are the building blocks towards your long-term goals because they set you up for success. You can’t achieve your long-term goals without the smaller ones leading up to them. The importance of setting short-term goals almost every day is because they keep you on track and help you maintain the disciplined mindset you need. A few examples of short-term goals would be:
Run a 5k
Read one book a month
Clean out your closet
Learning a new language
Developing a morning/night routine
Starting a personal project
Revamping your space
All of these things set you up to achieve greater things. Running a 5K could lead to you running a 10K. Your short-term goals will continue to grow the more you incorporate them into your everyday life.
LONG-TERM GOALS
Think about your goals that require a lot of commitment, hard work, and time; those are your long-term goals. These are the ones that take what feels like a lifetime to accomplish, and some may. They can’t be done by the end of the day, nor within a few months to years. Many times we set goals that we think are short-term, and we tend to want to rush them or we forget about them. Stop doing this. Your short-term goals will help you work toward those big goals and keep you on track. These are your life's big dreams, your ultimate goals. That test you are studying so hard to get an A on is your short-term goal, but becoming an expert in the career you want is long-term. Your short-term goals will help you work toward those big goals and keep you on track. A few examples of long-term goals would be:
Start your own business
Pay off your mortgage
Develop self-confidence and a healthy mindset
Eliminate all debt
Land your dream job
Maintain your ideal weight
Travel the world
Saving for your dream home
As you can see, these are all things that take patience, work, and consistency to achieve. You can’t rush these goals, and the moment you steer off the path, you have to start over. Don’t save money for a dream home just to spend it on things that don’t matter, and hitting those health goals every day is what will set you up to maintain your ideal weight.
Are we seeing a pattern here? Achieving short-term goals equals long-term success.
Be realistic when setting goals for yourself. It’s important to set one or two mini-goals each day so that you make sure you have things to accomplish and look forward to completing. Create a list of all of your long-term goals or make a vision board. To see it and write it is to achieve it. Break those long-term goals up into shorter ones so that they don’t get overwhelming, and adjust them when needed. Your future self will be grateful if you set short-term goals that will benefit you in the long run.
What can you do now to set yourself up for greatness? Have you distinguished your short-term and long-term goals yet? Get to it!
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