Goal Setting - Short Term Goals
If you haven't read our related article about long term goals, we recommend you do so  before you read this article. It's important that you begin with your long term goals before setting short term goals.

Take a final look at your long terms goals. Make sure they motivate you, that they elevate your heart rate just thinking about them. If you haven't already done so, add detail and pictures to all of them. Once you have your long term goals established, written down, and supported with pictures, you're ready to leave fantasy land and break these goals down into realistic mid term, short term, and daily goals. Whether you're setting personal goals, professional goals, or sales goals, the only way goal setting strategies work is to follow this process. Without a reasonable long term plan, your goals will remain fantasies of your imagination, sales projections, or business plan.

We've created a video session that goes into detail on how this process works using the GoalTender roadmap. You can find this video by visiting our website using the links in the signature box below. For the purposes of this article, we'll use an example of how to break down one specific personal long range goal into manageable tasks.

Let's say, for example, that you're a musician and one of your long range goals is to perform at the Super Bowl. Fantasy? Of course. If you've read the long term goals article, you'll now understand that they are meant as motivators, that reaching them is not really the purpose. If you don't understand this concept, go re-read our article on long term goals. This concept will make more sense as you proceed with this article.

For this example, let's say we set the goal to perform at the Super Bowl for twenty years from now. Let's break that one down into a few ten year mid term goals that, if achieved, will put us on the road to the Super Bowl. Let's use the following ten year goals.


  • Performed for 10+ audiences of 2,000+ people
  • Released 5+ CDs
  • Sales of 10,000+ CDs
  • Met 5+ major recording artists and/or songwriters

It's not important that we set any goals between ten and twenty years. There will be plenty of time to do that as we tweak our plan over the next ten years, while on the road to our ten year goals. What's important is a firm belief that if you reach the ten year goals, you will be positioned to reach the twenty year goal in the ten years to follow. If you have that belief, the only thing you need focus on is the ten year goals. Are you starting to see how this works?

This is a good time to make an important point. At the time you create your goal plan, It's not at all important that you are knowledgeable in the areas of interest. In this example, you may be just starting in the music business and know nothing about how to succeed. That's okay. If you were going to do this one time and never change the plan, you would have to know about your business in order to create the plan. That's not the case. You will change your plan often based on what's working and what's not working. You see, as you proceed, you will become knowledgeable. What you become by setting goals is more important than what you get.

With this in mind, let's continue with one of the mid term goals, breaking it down into shorter term two year goals. Let's take the ten year goal of performing for 10+ audiences of 2,000+ people and break it down into shorter term goals that, to the best of our current knowledge, we should strive for in order to realize the ten year goal. Notice that as we break down the goals, they become more and more detailed.

  • 100+ local paid performances
  • Release 2 CDs to use as promotion materials
  • Get 2+ original songs played on local radio at least once per day

Again, what happens between two and ten years is not important as long as we believe by hitting our two year goals, we'll be on the path to the ten year goal of having performed for 10+ audiences of 2,000+ people. As we proceed for the next two years, we'll become more knowledgeable and many things will change on our goal plan.Finally, let's take the two year goal of 100+ performances and break it down daily tasks. This is where the rubber hits the road, where you actually have to do something.

  • Call one local venue per day to try to get booked
  • Practice with full band once per week
  • Practice solo for at least 30 minutes per day
  • Write lyrics to one song per month
  • Write music to one song per month

This completes the process of breaking down one long term goal into mid and short term goals and into daily manageable tasks. You can now create a logical link between making a phone call today to performing at the Super Bowl in twenty years. Do you see how important it is that the twenty year goal continues to excite you? If it doesn't excite you, you won't make the call, you won't reach your short term goals, your mid term goals, or your long term goals. So, at the point where a long term goal stops exciting you, change it.

There's no magic in keeping the same long term goals. Change them any time and as often as you must to keep you excited. Even if your long term goals change dramatically over time, by doing the tasks and reaching the short term goals, you'll put yourself in a better position to achieve any long term goal that you change. Remember, your long term goals are motivators to keep you doing the daily tasks. What you become by doing the tasks is much more important than what you get.

If you're serious about goal setting, you're going to need tools to aid in designing, refining, and following your plan. We've developed a tool we call the GoalTender but there are many others available on the web and we encourage you to research several articles and tools before investing your money. What works for one person may not work for you.

Closing Thought: Progress has little to do with speed, but much to do with direction. Pick off your short term tasks methodically each day. It may seem like slow progress but a mountain is moved one rock at a time.

(songs related to short term goals - coming soon)

Video: (sample session of breaking down long term goals using enlarged Goal Roadmap from GT)

If you're serious about goal setting, you're going to need tools to aid in designing, refining, and following your plan. We've developed a tool we call the GoalTender but there are many others available on the web and we encourage you to research several articles and tools before investing your money. What works for one person may not work for you.

Closing Thought

Progress has little to do with speed, but much to do with direction. Pick off your short term tasks methodically each day. It may seem like slow progress but a mountain is moved one rock at a time.