Smarter Goal SettingInformation tips and resources for all your goal setting and self improvement needs

Personal and professional life depends on goal setting now more than ever. The importance to plan, stick to the plan, adjust it as you progress and finally reach the goal represent important steps of the way. But during the planning phase, one may realize that there are short term goals that require all the attention and on which the other larger ones depend. This is what makes the difference between long and short term goals.

According to certain opinions short term goals must be defined according to the plan you make when you first set them. If the period of time stays within one month those are definitely short term goals, but beyond six months or more, we’re talking about long term ones. What they fail to see, is that you cannot speak about short term goals without having in mind long term ones.

We can only think and plan the former against the background of the latter. The definition of short term goals is pretty relative if we think about the individual way of appreciating the period of time necessary for goal fulfillment: if one plans short term goals for weeks, another will take months as the reference extent.

One essential aspect to take into consideration when setting short term goals is the necessity to stay specific and very realistic in terms of planning. If you think that teaching your students past tense next week is a well defined and smart goal, failure will take you by surprise. Even more specific terms are necessary for the planning of short term goals.

Teach the difference between regular and irregular verbs next Tuesday morning in class between 9 and 11: here is the realistic version of the plan presented above. The aim as such is pretty small but it is surely realistic and achievable for a two hour period. That is certainly one of the short term goals included in a larger plan or long term goal of allowing foreign students to learn how to use past tense forms of verbs after teaching, practicing, reinforcing and revising for at least several weeks as part of an English course.

Hoping that this has made clear the difference between short term goals and long term ones, the only thing left is to advise you to stick to the plans you have made and demonstrate perseverance in order to achieve success.

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Are you in your twenties and feel that something is missing from your life? Are you not sure which direction to take, what to do next? Well, there are plenty of individuals, even in mature adulthood, who have been having the same problem. A human being needs to constantly create and define himself/herself in relation to others, the environment and the universe, which is why we so desperately need personal goals. Have you ever thought that perhaps your life is missing an essential element? That you have not created some personal goals the achieving of which would actually boost up self-confidence and satisfaction? Don’t let fear, criticism or negative attitudes set you back, action is the best solution!

Without personal goals one may easily end up with a feeling of failure or pointlessness, and that will surely not make life seem any more interesting than it already is. Therefore, you should take a bit of time off from whatever it is that you do and think about what you want to do with your life. Personal goals can be set for lots of life sectors, you just need to define and follow them. These fields of activity or of interest may vary from one individual to another, yet they may include family, career, health, finance, social position, education, entertainment and lots of others.

Ask yourself whether each point is important for you, feel your way and understand what you would like to achieve. How do you picture yourself in the light of these goals a decade from now? And after setting long term goals, break them down into smaller goals that are meant to reach sooner. You can break these long term personal goals down to cover months, weeks and even days if you try your patience at this form of life planning.

It is again very important that you decide on these personal goals by taking into account 5 criteria such as specificity, measurability, attainability, relevance and time. In one word, the long term projects have to be smart. The theory of the smart goals has been developed and widely used in personal training and counseling with great results in practice. It is very important that you do not set goals that are too hard to achieve. If so, and if fulfilling one hard goal has taken longer than expected, next you can establish goals that are a little easier to achieve, and the other way round.

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Reaching Your Financial Goals In 5 Steps

Setting and reaching your financial goals probably seems like an overwhelming task. If you break down large financial goals into smaller, accessible goals, you’ll have an easier time achieving them. Follow these five simple steps to reaching your financial objectives.

Step One: To set and achieve financial goals, you must understand your finances. This is the most significant piece of financial success. To comprehend your finances you must know your FICO score. This three digit number is your financial footprint that will affect car loans, home loans, and credit card applications. Go to www.myfico.com to obtain your score.

After you understand your FICO score, you need to know how you spend your money. Take one week to jot down all of your purchases and look at the amount of money that is coming in as opposed to the amount that is being spent. Are you increasing or decreasing your amount of debt?

Step Two: Write down your financial goals with a realistic amount of time it will take to reach each goal. Decide which goal you want to obtain first. You won’t be able to tackle all goals at the same time, and you don’t want to set unachievable goals.

Step Three: Look at the time frame for your prioritized goal. If its a long-term goal, you need to write down smaller goals to reach the long-term goal. For example, your long-term goal may be that you want to save three thousand dollars in one year in case you get laid off.

The smaller goals to reach this long-term goal would be to save two-hundred and fifty dollars each month. The person setting this goal would need to look at their spending habits and find places to save money. Maybe that person would cut their dining out to three times a month instead of eight times a month. Or maybe the person would spend one hundred dollars on clothes instead of three hundred and fifty dollars on clothes.

Step Four: Evaluate yourself. Depending on your short-term goals, at the end of each day, week, or month you should evaluate your progress. If you didn’t reach your short-term goal, you should find out where the failure occurred. Did you eat out more during the month of December due to the holidays? Did you spend more on personal expenses, because you threw a baby shower for your sister?

You’re not going to always reach each goal. Don’t give up if you don’t succeed the first time. See if you can make up for the goal that you didn’t reach or reassess your long-term goal. Add a few more months to make your long-term goal more realistic.

Step Five: Success. When you reach your goal, take time to evaluate the process that you went through to succeed. Give yourself credit for making changes in your finances to better yourself and decide how you can apply your motivation and success to other financial goals.

Set the next financial goal and complete the same five steps.

About the Author: Arina Nikitina is the author of the goal setting tutorial “How to Set and Achieve a Goal”. Get 27 proven techniques, 9 worksheets, and step-by-step success plan here: www.how-to-set-and-achieve-a-goal.com/ebook.shtml

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