THE LONG HAUL

THE LONG HAUL

What are your long term goals?
There’s a reason that’s such a common question in job interviews, family dinners, and even first dates. Long term goals say a lot about who you are, where you’re going, and what you value. They are the big dreams that give your life direction and purpose.
What exactly is a long term goal? Long term goals are things you want to achieve further into the future, often on a timescale of months or years. Long term goals require a good deal of time and daily planning in order to ultimately reach them. They often require multiple steps, involving the completion of other, smaller goals along the way.
And if you’re still trying to figure out what you want out of life, the first thing you need to do is to define your goal, with clarity
Defining Long Term Goals
Long term goals refer to accomplishments that will take significant time, effort, and planning to achieve. They are the delayed-gratification outcome of months or years of focus.
Life has many types of goals, big and complex enough to require planning, persistence, and accountability over a long period of time, from several months up to five years.
Long term goal types:
Career goals: Changing careers, become a leader in your field, or starting a business. Even starting a new career at 40 can be a viable goal. Financial goals: Buying a house, saving for early retirement, or funding your children’s education. Personal goals: Travelling the world, finding a life partner, improving your focus, finding your purpose in life, or becoming a great success in something you love doing — writing a song, lifting weights, or making comics. The difference that makes a dream into a concrete goal is simple. It’s a plan. By creating a series of short term goals that bring you closer to your destination, your dreams become actionable and achievable.
As you pursue the direction of your heart’s calling, you can only reach your long term goal by consistently taking baby steps. But it’s also important to keep an open mind toward self-discovery. When it comes to long goals, most people talk about staying really focused on the objectives. While setting objectives is part of it, we also need to leave space for surprising opportunities and breakthroughs.
Setting Tangible Long & Short Term Goals
When pursuing a big dream, defining measurable outcomes makes all the difference. How do you define success? Here’s how to set tangible, measurable goals. Break your long-term goal into baby steps. You need to know what specific steps to take each day, week, and month to achieve your goals. Establish metrics of success: These analytics will help you know when you’re on the right track.
Here’s how it played out in life.
If you have great plans for a major change or the creation of something of great value then there are three major steps you need to take.
● Set clear cut objectives. Your objective is to be a successful business. When asked what business you plan to set up you are not sure and has unclear ideas of what business it will be. And when asked how you plan to achieve it, you have very vague ideas and are unsure. Well this is the surest indication that business is not for you. However if you are sure of what your business is and who your customers are likely to be and what your USP will be you are half way there.
● Set time lines: Even with clear plans, there is still one resource that is there equally for all, but does not wait for none – time. Your well defined plans cannot be left to hang in the void for eternity, for one reason. Even the best defined plans do not stay valid for eternity. Step, even baby steps need to be set a time line for and followed. There also needs to be backup plans and second attempt schedule to provide for those unforeseen glitches
● The check list: There needs to be revisits to all the action that you have done. There could be gaps in your action plan that you had not reckoned for. This is best done using scoring on a scale of one to ten. Each target needs to be considered a step on the way up and the true value of the achievement need to be clearly marked.
Unplanned success is always the result of luck and lasts as long as your luck hold. Planned success lasts as long as you live.