How to Balance Short and Long Term Goals

Domain: Personal Development - Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

Earlier in this series, we suggested shifting your short-term goals from twelve months down to six months. What about your long-term goals? How do we factor them in?

It's important to have a mix of both short and long-term goals. Focusing on only short term goals creates a lack of vision and direction. These goals can become short-sighted with no long-term impact on your life.

On the other hand, focusing on only long term goals can be overwhelming. These large goals feel far away which can often lead to procrastination or inaction.

Compare it to going on a road-trip. Your GPS is directing you to your long-term destination but you need to be paying constant attention to the road and your next exit in order to get there.

Blending short and long-term goals allows you to maintain your strategic vision of who you want to be while also taking the daily/weekly steps necessary to get you there.

I've shared a very generic goal list below that I'll reference throughout this article. This is the format I use; however, I've substituted my personal goals with more general examples.

Create your mix

Determine the intervals with which you want to set your goals. Most of my goals are set for 6 months; however, I have a few long-term goals ranging from 2-20 years. Find the right combination of timeframes that work best for you. Your ranges may vary based on your personal situation as well as the types of goals you are choosing.

Link ‘em

Sometimes it can help to have short-term goals that directly support the long-term ones. You don't have to do this 100% of the time but it can help add an additional focus to the areas that are truly important to you.

In our example, the short term growth of the business will support the 5 year goal towards self-employment. Similarly, booking one vacation in the first half of the year supports the 10 year goal of traveling to national parks and other countries.

Post up

Print your goal list and put it in a few places that you'll see often. I keep a copy posted on the inside of my medicine cabinet and another on my workstation. As a result, I see the list daily which gets me thinking about what I'm going to do that day to bring myself one-step closer to them.

Check in

I recommend checking-in weekly to see if you've taken steps towards your goals. This is particularly helpful when balancing both short and long-term goals because you are thinking both tactically and strategically.

Thank you for reading. My hope is always that you've found something helpful and easy to implement.

This week’s action items:

1. Determine which timeframes make sense for your long-term goals

2. Document your short and long-term goals in one list

3. Identify which of your short-term goals support your long-term aspirations

4. Post your goal list in locations that you will see daily

5. Check-in once a week to determine how you've made progress toward each of your goals