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Importance of Long-Term Goals

Long-term goals help you plan for the future. We can take a bit of control into our own hands in terms of how we want our life to turn out by setting long-term ideas. These plans will take time and are meant to be an ultimate end goal, rather than a step along the way. For instance, a house is a long-term goal that requires you to start saving now. Looking ahead to longer goals are what help you to stay focused on the big picture when everything doesn’t always go according to plan.

How to Identify a Goal

Long-term goals can be harder to set if you’re not a person who often thinks about the future. A good method to find a long-term goal (or two!) that you can get started on is to look at what you value in life. 

Is having a family one day what you value in your life? What about being able to travel to every country in the world? Good health? Longevity? Nice things? There isn’t a wrong answer here. You simply have to ask yourself: What do I value in life and how can I reach these goals?

Finding these values forces you to look deeper inward to find what really matters to you.

Goal Setting Tips

Here are a few tips to set your goals in action to reach your future success:

Set Goals That Motivate You

What about the future gets you excited? Think of that one big thing that you’ve always wanted to do and turn it into a goal, rather than just a dream. Choose something that you’re passionate about and are willing to sacrifice short-term luxuries for in order to get to that ultimate end goal. Don’t simply create a list of goals, but include the reasons in place for why you want to achieve it.

Try to make your reasoning beyond yourself. Often, when we make the goals bigger than just our own self-interest, they become easier to attain. Think about a cause that you’d like to help or the family you want to have in the future. It’s easy to let ourselves down and brush it off like it never happened, but letting others down can sting even worse. Let something bigger than yourself motivate you into action with your long-term goals.

Long Term Goal Examples

Financial Goals:

• Buy a house

• Save for retirement

• Generate passive income sources

• Start college tuition funds for children

• Reduce monthly spending

Professional/Career Goals:

• Earn a degree

• Get a promotion

• Be published in a professional journal

• Be part of an expert panel in your field

• Switch job fields

• Master a skill

• Give a Ted Talk

• Start your own business

Personal Goals:

• Run a marathon

• Read a certain number of books this year

• Start (or break) a habit

• Create a better work/life balance

• Learn to swim

• Learn a new language

• Write a book

Break Goals Up into Manageable Pieces

After you’ve established the goal you want to attain, it’s time to break it down into smaller pieces. Start by creating small checkpoints or milestones. If your goal is to run a marathon, you can’t just step out your front door and hope for the best. First, you start with shorter runs before working your way up to longer distances and eventually to speed milestones. By acknowledging these smaller goals (and your successes), the big goal of completing a marathon isn’t as scary.

Also, consider the things you need to get this process going. This can be all of the practical help you’ll need along the way, whether it’s physical—such as equipment—or more academic, like a mentor or coach. Then, create a timeline for these smaller goals—find the ‘when’ and ‘how’ you will reach them over time.

Then, like climbing a mountain, put one foot in front of the other and complete the manageable goals, one at a time, before moving onto the next. Breaking your long-term goal into these manageable steps and actions helps to keep you focused on the ultimate goal, without feeling overwhelmed.

Plan for Success

Get into the mindset that you will achieve your goals no matter what life throws at you. Just like breaking up a long-term goal, a good way to go about this is to readjust your goals when you are not meeting them. These mini checkpoints are just as valuable, because it allows you to be flexible with your plan and fix what is no longer working for you.

For example, if your plan was to workout 30 minutes each day, but now find that you keep pushing that workout off to do other things, modify the goal. Could you break up your workout throughout the day? Could you shift it to the morning? Would alternating workouts make you more excited?

Altering the goals doesn’t mean that you have failed. It simply means that the journey might require a slightly different route than you had first imagined. Tell yourself that you’ll get there no matter what, even if it means readjusting your goals to fit the new path of success that you’re creating. Use these changes as a method to get you closer to that goal you’ve been working towards. Readjusting just means that you are checking in with yourself and assessing. Don’t feel ashamed about that.

Set SMART Goals

SMART is an acronym used in goal creation for the ultimate assurance of attainable and sustainable goals. Here is what SMART means:

Specific

Make sure you know exactly what your goal is and why you want it. This connects back to you having a motivating factor. They have to be specific enough to where you know the who, what, where, and why of your individual goal. 

Measurable

Next, let your goals be measurable in when you achieve them. Your short-term goals should have specific metrics and data that you follow to reach that end long-term goal. This will ensure that you’re on track and making progress with your goal. Ask yourself: How will I know when this is accomplished?

Achievable

Shoot for the stars with your goals, but make sure they are attainable in regards to your finances of physicality. We want to add better progress to our lives with this long-term goal, not take away anything. Make your goals big, but still achievable in the realm of possibility for your life.

RElevant

This is about connecting the goal to your larger values. How does the goal influence your values in life? Is it relevant to your bigger picture? Who are you helping by achieving this goal? How is it helping you? Make sure you’re doing the goal for the right reasons. 

Timely

Lastly, make sure your goal is time-based. This means setting specific dates for when different parts of your goal should be achieved. Ask yourself “when?” questions for this section of SMART goals.

Commit Publicly or Privately

This step is up to you, but people are often more motivated when others are included. If you gain motivation through other people knowing about your goals, then tell friends and family members and anyone else that can check up on you and hold you accountable. If you prefer to reach your goals on your own, that’s okay, too! This step is about finding what way motivates you and will challenge you to reach those long-term goals.

Make a Vision Board

Make some sort of visual reminder of your goal that you can look at every day. This can be in the form of a poster with your goal written on it, a vision board with pictures of your goal, or any other visual content that inspires you. Place this somewhere that you can see every day to remind you to chase after that end goal.

How to Use Short Term Goals to Reach Long Term Goals

Short-term goals should be used in conjunction with long-term goals for ultimate success. Your short-term goals should be set throughout the year in different increments, just like your mini check-ins and assessments.  

These smaller goals will help you track your progress towards the long-term goal and can help you stay motivated. Just as in the marathon example above, your plan for success could look like this:

Long term goal: Running a marathon

Short term goal: Completing a marathon

Mini check-ins: How does my body feel? Is the mileage I’m running in line with my training plan? Am I doing the necessary steps to ensure I remain injury free?

Each of these steps can help you track your progress and avoid getting overwhelmed by that massive long-term goal you set.

Setting long-term goals should be a fun and exciting thing. After all, it’s what you’re looking forward to in your future. Follow the tips we gave you in this article to ensure that your goals are met with ease.

Now, let’s get excited to start!