Short-Term Goals: The Secret to Success
There is a lot of information about the benefits of setting short- and long-term goals.
Long-term goals are larger objectives you intend to achieve over time. They focus on the future and are reached by meeting smaller milestones. They don’t require us to revisit them, but once or twice a year. However, long-term goals can sometimes feel unattainable and far away because of delayed gratification and months and years of hard work.
In contrast, a short-term goal is something you want to accomplish quickly, and it’s helpful to dig a little deeper into the aspects of this type of goal. The productivity experts at Atlassian define a short-term goal with the following characteristics:
- A short timeframe for completion, usually within less than a year.
- Is defined by a specific action, intent, or target to achieve.
- Supports a larger vision or mission for your life or career.
You likely already set short-term goals for yourself daily without giving them much thought. Consider reviewing your morning to-do list for work or the lists in your journal, which may include items such as how many times you want to exercise each week or how many books you want to read this year. From a professional perspective, you might include a goal of completing a leadership course in the summer or providing in-person praise or feedback to at least one team member per week. These short-term goals lead to a healthy, successful, balanced career and life, which is the long-term goal.
These goals might seem less significant, but each one you achieve is a boost in momentum. That’s the beauty of short-term goals. They are realistic, bite-sized intentions that make you feel you can achieve more significant things when completed.
Short-term goals are beneficial for a few reasons.
1. They Offer Instant Reward
Have you ever looked at the new year and desired to be more productive, so you set a New Year’s resolution only to abandon it within the first few days or weeks? It’s tough to put in the effort to achieve a big goal.
According to John Salamone, a University of Connecticut psychologist, your brain reacts when you accomplish something. Your dopamine spikes when you reach a goal, causing your brain to favor a quicker reward rather than delayed gratification. Short-term goals offer immediate satisfaction and help increase motivation.
2. They Make Life Easier
Short-term goals make life, with all its pieces and parts, feel more easily manageable. Consider a 10-minute daily walk versus training for a marathon. Which seems more achievable? It’s a ten-minute daily walk. But if you continue the 10-minute walk day after day and week after week, you may soon want to go longer, which may lead to the decision to train for a marathon. Big goals can still be achievable, but it helps to break them down into smaller, more immediate actions.
3. Provide An Action Plan
The benefit of prioritizing short-term goals is that they help you move more quickly toward your long-term objectives. Long-term goals are the destination or target you want to reach, and short-term goals are the momentum or milestones to achieve them. Short-term goals are the initial actions you must take to accomplish more significant things, and they provide a roadmap or action plan.
4. Allows For Reflection and Change
Your short or long-term goals will change over time. Nevertheless, short-term goals help you identify shifts or changes in your desired direction. When you accomplish short-term goals, it offers a chance to reflect on whether what you are doing in the present aligns with where you ultimately want to be.
When knocking out your short-term goals, ask yourself how you feel upon completion. Is it as satisfying as you thought it would be? Why or why not? Do these goals still align with where you want to end up? Suppose you feel drained or exhausted rather than energized and optimistic after completing your short-term goals. This indicates that something needs to shift or a reevaluation is in order. These markers help you confirm direction.
How To Set Short-Term Goals
Our next post will cover setting short-term goals using the SMART goal framework. Setting short-term goals requires more than jotting down a random to-do list. They need clarity and intentionality to be successful, and using a proven framework is a great way to stay focused, feel motivated, and maximize your goal-setting time.
Click here to learn more about the benefits of using secure Mobile Express Check-In, children’s and youth check-in, and volunteer scheduling to help manage your events.
For more safety tips and information, subscribe to the KidCheck blog or connect with us on X, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, and YouTube.
Sources:
https:/today.uconn.edu/2012/11/uconn-researcher-dopamine-not-about-pleasure-anymore/#
Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash
