The Power of Short-Term Goals

Eveybody knows that nearer deadlines are important and can motivate one to action. As the deadline for a particular goal approaches, people tend to think more about that goal, and strive harder toward achieving that goal. Therefore, having short term deadlines for your goals can help you achieve your goals effectively.

As people work harder as they get closer to their goals, goals should be set on a relatively short time frame. Weekly or monthly goals are more motivating than yearly goals. Short term goals are easier to see and are more motivating then longer-term goals.

A Stanford University study of children doing poorly in math found that those asked to set near-term, goals not only began outperforming those asked to set more distant goals, they also developed a sense of personal control, confidence, determination. Goals which are short term have a more motivating effect.

It is also easier to check your progress toward short term goals – you’ll quickly be able to monitor if you are on track to achieve your goal, and if not, you’ll quickly be able to implement new tactics for getting there.

However, longer-term goals such as yearly ones have their own benefits. They can provide a clear sense of the overall objectives and outcomes that you are working toward. In businesses, yearly goals are important as a map to help in help in financial planning, estimating how many new people to hire, and so on. But top businesses also set quarterly or even monthly goals because they realize that, for the most part, yearly goals are simply too far in the future to be truly motivating. For most of us, the results of annual goals may be too far away to motivate us to action. If you set a yearly goal, it is easy to find yourself sitting around for 9 or 10 months doing little about your goal, feeling uneasy and overwhelmed about such an ambitious goal, and then freaking out as the end of the year approaches.

So if you’re making some New Year’s Resolutions, focus less on what you want to accomplish in the coming year, and more on what you’d like to accomplish in January. Or if you’re trying to give up an addiction such as smoking , staying away for one full year may be a bit overwhelming, focus on abstaining for the week and go from there.

There’s certainly benefits in having a long-term plan of what you want to achieve in the coming year, but you’ll accomplish more by also setting progressively more challenging shorter-term goals and building on your success.