Last week, I went through SMART goal setting step by step. This week I’ll explain more about putting those SMART goals into practice by differentiating between short term goals, long term goals, and even weekly or progress goals.
First off, I would like to say that I would consider a short term goal one that is achieved within 3-6 months and a long term goal takes a year or more. I usually don’t like to look much over 2 years into the future for goals (unless incredibly broad) because so much can change over that time!
The way I use short term and long term goals are more like the foundation of SMART goals and the starting point for figuring out weekly or progress goals. For some people, their short term goals are a direct reflection of their long term goals. For others, their short term goals end up being much different from their long term goals. Usually when this happens, I would break down the long term goal in order to create related short term goals as well.
These goals that are going to take 3 months or more are great to have, but they aren’t actionable. That’s where the SMART goals come in. SMART goals aren’t directly what you achieve months to years in advanced, but relevant to what you can do in the next week. They’re more attainable. SMART goals may not directly reflect the short term goal you have in mind but it’s a stepping stone or progressing towards that.
So, how do you make your long term, short term, and SMART goals work together? First, pick where you want to be a year from now, remember make these realistic. Then taking that goal into consideration, where should you be 6 months from now? 3 months? Once you get it narrowed down to 1-3 months you can start creating action steps and applying those SMART goals.
For example, say your long term goal is to eat balanced meals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner 80% of the time. Your 6 month goal is to consistently eat balanced meals 50% of the time. At 3 months, you’d like to be eating 5 servings of vegetables per day. So, our SMART goal may be, eat 1 serving of vegetables with lunch and dinner for 3 days over the next week.
It’s okay for your short term and long term goals to be less specific. It’s the SMART goals, or actionable items, that you want to be more specific and measurable so you know you’re making progress and even achieving that goal.
Sit down and make a list of your short term and long term goals. If you don’t have a short term goal related to all of your long term goals, create those short term goals as well. Look at all of your short term goals, make a list of what steps you have to take to achieve those goals. Look at those steps, can you narrow it down even further? Can you pull specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely goals out of those steps? That’s where you start. Don’t choose to do all of them at once, maybe just pick one or two. As you master that one or two, build upon what you’ve accomplished until you reach that larger goal.
Know that things change, obstacles come up, and goal achievement may be delayed or sped up. Such is life. Be okay with that. Be flexible. You’re still progressing. If something comes up, or if you don’t reach your goal that week, adjust your deadlines you have set for yourself, keep the goal for another week and really master it.
Goal setting is a little more complex than some may think. But, by taking this time to list these things out for yourself, you’re creating a plan and setting yourself up for success.
