Blending Short and Long-Term Objectives for Optimal Results

Photo by Nilina

Small goals don’t take much out of us. We can see the destination directly around the corner and stay focused. They help keep our attention because they have smaller steps that we can achieve in less time. They deliver instant gratification as we conquer each step, making us feel good about ourselves.

On the contrary, more significant goals are no different, with many micro steps or waypoints for us to reach. They require more effort, time, and, of course, discipline to achieve. This process feels more like work than fun as we look down the path at a larger goal, which can quickly turn into the cold shadow of a mountain that we said we wanted to climb. We understand the work that manifests itself in front of us.  Everything sounds great in theory and looks easy on paper, but reality sets in quickly and hits our ego hard, bending even the strongest wills like a blade of grass in the wind. 

We can wage war on these challenges by balancing short and long-term goal setting, essentially using smaller or short-term goals stacked together to equal the big, masterpiece picture of what we want to achieve. Remember in middle school when we all learned how to check our math problems by working backward from the solution? In long-term goal setting, we start with the end in mind and then work our math backward with the steps to reach each waypoint. 

If our goal takes us 12 months to reach, we can break it down to what we must do each quarter, month, week, and even day. By spelling out these action steps, we can generate a list to prioritize, aiding us in creating a clear-cut order of operation. Each step can then be a target with specific timeframes for how long it will take, ultimately creating deadlines for us to hit and keeping us focused on what we need to get done. These steps give us continuous check-ins or progress reports that allow us to dial in and make adjustments, keeping us on the best path to reach our goals.

Goal setting and achievement are all about balance. If we stare at the short waypoints, we’ll undoubtedly lose track of the destination; however, if we only check on our route occasionally, we won’t be able to correct our course early enough to adapt to all sorts of scenarios and situations. We must stay the course and play the long and short games together to elevate ourselves towards our goals.  

If you need help setting or reaching your goals, let our team here at Martial Way Legacy help you.

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Guro Larry, Sonja, Lauren & Tori St. Clair
Martial Way Legacy
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