You have probably set goals at some point in your life but never seen them through. It may not be that you suck at accomplishing your aims, but that you are doing it all wrong. Resolves such as become fit or secure a better-paying job are hard to accomplish as they are not goals. Rather, they are outcomes. They are what you desire to achieve. However, these intentions are vague and quite broad, making them hard to accomplish.
A goal is an idea you envision, plan for, and commit yourself to achieve. It must have a deadline. Here, well talk about what short term goals refer to, why they matter, how to track them, and over thirty suggestions of practical short-term goals that one can commit to.
What Are Short Term Goals?
Goals can be divided by the timeline you plan to achieve them. You can define short term goals as the actions that you plan to accomplish in a short time. The timeline could mean some hours, days, weeks, months, or even a year. It is essentially anything that you would like to accomplish in 12 months or less.
Shorter-term objectives usually build up to long-term goals. If, for instance, your longer-term aspiration is to start your own business, you can set short term goals such as register your business name this month, apply for loans before three months are up, look for business partners before the year ends, etc. The secret to achieving most things is to set shorter-term desires. And make sure they are relevant, achievable, easy to measure, and time-sensitive.
Why It Is Important to Set Short-Term Goals?
If you need to improve yourself, you should make a plan and work towards realizing it. Shorter-term goals help you see where you are going so that you can get there. Here are the reasons why these objectives are paramount:
They Improve Focus
Short-term goals help you pay attention to the path towards achieving your bigger, longer-term target. With a shorter action plan, you dont need to see how the whole idea will pan out. You only need to focus on the weekly or monthly plan ahead. If lets say you want to have a successful blog in five years, you will not know where to start unless you make smaller plans on how you will get there. For example, create and launch the blog, begin posting high-quality articles regularly, sign up for ads, etc.
They Help You Have a Clearer Idea of Your Plan
Short-term goals can be set to help achieve specific long-term goals. When you divide your longer-term desire into shorter targets, you can envision all the actions you have to take more clearly.
They Assist You in Identifying Your Next Actions
Shorter-term goals help you see the next step you must take to realize your final objective. You can further divide your months-long objectives into smaller actions. These goals are then easier to turn into reality.
They Help You Beat Procrastination
If you are in the habit of procrastinating, setting shorter-goals can help you overcome it. The reason is they are specific and have very short deadlines. If, for instance, you want to be fit in a year, you can commit yourself to run for 15 minutes every day for this month.
They Give You Instant and Insightful Feedback
Short-term goals are wonderful because they offer you instant feedback once the time is up. For instance, if you want to grow your mailing list by 500 contacts within a month, you will know whether you accomplished your goal or not at the end of the month. You can track your progress, and if you didnt achieve your target, assess where you went wrong and work on that area, says Allan Davis, a success coach at ResumeEdge.
Short Term Goals Examples You Can Actually Commit
Now you understand why it is essential to set short-term milestones. Moving on, let us give you some ideas of goals you can make for the short term. Note they are just to provide you with a gist of the whole thing. Nonetheless, always ensure that your goals have an element of measurability (deadline/ timeframe), as we will show you.
Note, as much as we are all about short-term habits here, it is vital to appreciate that they should always complement our long-term plans. According to Josh Ramos, a contributor at Medium, one should aim to set short term goals that are a representation of your long term goals.
Short-Term Personal Goals
Here are some personal goals you can make for the short-term:
- Make an appreciation journal every night for one week.
- Switch off the TV, phones, and other devices by 10 pm each day for a fortnight.
- Read at least one book per month.
- Do an entire personal improvement course in one month.
- Donate to charity once a month over four months.
- Start a garden within a week and tend to daily it for two months.
- Learn two home-repair skills monthly.
Short-Term Financial Goals
Want to improve your financial habits? Here are some goals to guide you:
- Carry lunch to work every day for three months.
- Drink only homemade coffee for three months.
- Make recreational purchases only after 8 weeks.
- Save 10% of your salary every month towards emergencies.
- Download an app for monitoring day-to-day expenditure today evening.
- Check out potential stocks for investment at the end of the week.
- Automate cash transfer to your savings account at the end of the month.
- Consult a financial adviser within two weeks.
- Cut costs by making home-made stuff from next week.
Short-Term Career Goals
If you want to achieve more at work here are some ideas for short-term career-related goals:
- Finish a relevant course online every two months.
- Attend a job conference within 60 days.
- Have a lunch break with your colleague or boss one time per week for 8 weeks.
- Interview with another company next week.
- Report to the workplace 10 minutes earlier for a month.
- Make contact with a career mentor through email or phone call next Monday in the morning.
- Learn about ethical leadership and management within three months.
Short-Term Fitness Goals
If you want to get fit and healthy, here are some goals you can set:
- Hire a personal trainer within a month.
- Exercise in the gym for three days a week, from 8 pm to 10 pm.
- Purchase workout gear at the end of the week.
- Measure your weight every three weeks.
- Do 30-minute intense workouts each morning.
- Take balanced meals for three months.
- Eat vegetables for dinner for three days every week.
- For one month cut off caffeine and dring water instead.
- Hike/ride a bike/go swimming (or any other sport activity) on Sundays for 6 weeks.
Short-Term Relationship Goals
Do not ever forget to work on your relationships. They are important in helping you lead a happy life. That said, here are some goals you can set for your relationships:
- Communicate with your best friend once a week.
- Take your partner for a date every two Fridays.
- Hang out with friends within the next 10 days.
- Prepare a meal for a special person once a month.
- Find a couples therapist by the end of the week.
- Start meditating twice a week.
- Ask the person you like on a date this Friday.
How to Track Your Goals and Ensure You Meet Them
Good goals can be measured. For that matter, here are some excellent tools you can use:
- A bullet journal. It involves monitoring your goals through journal with bullet lists of the same.
- If you do not want to use pen and paper, you can keep tabs on your short term goal ideas using apps such as Fabulous, Habitica, MyFitnessPal, and so forth.
- You can ask your friends to observe you as you make short-term changes to your lifestyle and ensure that you meet every goal that you have specified.
To conclude, it is essential to appreciate that while you might have very good short term goals, there are bound to be challenges along the way. Therefore, only by accepting that you can fail to achieve 100% of your objectives enables you to make changes in your life. Nonetheless, you always have to endeavor to ensure that your accomplishments far outweigh your failures. Now, do you have a short term goal? It is time to start working towards it!
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