What Type of Goals Should You Set?

There is a popular saying that goes, “The key is not spending time but investing it.” To invest your time properly is to make plans. Whether you are a student, an entrepreneur, a CEO, or a homebody, growth is essential. As a living, breathing human being, you absolutely cannot afford to be stagnant! Goals are great ways of committing to an intentional growth plan and reaping the results thereafter.

If you are going to achieve everything you wish to achieve in 2021, then you must set the right kind of goals. If you have been asking what kind of goals you should set, then this article was tailor-made for you.

We can make our goals either time-based or life-based. These sections will be discussed properly. Just keep reading..

Time-Based Goals

As the name suggests, your time-based goals are your goals that are bound by the period in which you hope to accomplish that goal. The SMART way of setting goals posits that your goals must be bound by time to make them achievable and measurable. 

Under this section, we have three types of goals – the lifetime goals, long term goals, and short term goals.

Lifetime Goals

Have you ever just woken up and decided that you’re going to accomplish something in particular before you leave this earth? Well, many of us have had such dreams. These dreams are the goals we intend to accomplish in our own lifetime. Goals like these are often far-off in the distant future and are made to align with our vision for our lives. For example, an intern in a software company could set a lifetime goal to build his own multi-billion dollar company by 60. Your life goal could also be to build a free school for 3,000 underprivileged kids. You can have lifetime goals for every area of your life too.

Long-Term Goals

A long term goal is shorter than a lifetime goal. While it also involves your future plans, it is a closer and more measurable plan. A long term goal takes time to accomplish, and so it requires intentional planning and sustained effort over a period of time. A long term goal can also be relevant in every area of your life – your business, your health, family, career, and so on. While a lifetime goal would be to build a free school that could accommodate 3000 underprivileged kids, a long term goal could involve securing the land in five years. What this does is give you a sense of direction while you move towards achieving the ultimate/lifetime goal. 

Short-Term Goals

This time-based goal is the type that you wish to accomplish in the immediate or near future. While a long term goal is a smaller unit of a lifetime goal, a short term goal is a smaller unit of a long term goal. What you do is break your long term goals into small achievable sections that can be completed in a short time. Still on the free school for 3,000 students, a short term goal could involve saving a particular amount of money every month to reach your goal. If your long term goal is to secure the land in five years, you could divide the cost into five parts (putting the interests into consideration). Then your short term goal will be to meet that cut by the end of the year. Short term goals could also be way shorter – stretching from hours, days, weeks, months to a year.

Life-Based Goals

As human beings, our lives comprise so many experiences and aspects that maintaining optimal growth in every one of these aspects might be difficult. This is why it is important to set specific goals for these specific areas. These are some of the life-based goals you can set.

Financial Goals

This is on top of the list because your financial health is so important! A lot of us work jobs that do not pay very well and still manage to spend like millionaires. That’s evidence of poor financial intelligence . Setting financial goals will put you in charge of how your money flows. To do this, you have to first set a priority list – what projects are important to you right now and which ones aren’t? By answering these questions, you’ll be more equipped to set short, long, and lifetime financial goals.

Career Goals

This goes without saying but then, set some career goals. This is one area of your life where you cannot afford to be laid-back. Your career goals determine how productive and progressive your professional life would be. Do you wish to be head of the company you currently intern for? Well, it is well within your reach if you just set the right goals and attack them head-on. An example of a long term career goal is attaining partner status in the law firm you currently work in five years. A short term goal could involve pitching your business idea to ten investors in six months. With proper planning and goal setting, anything is achievable.

Health and Fitness Goals

At some point in our lives, you have probably heard the phrase ‘Health is Wealth.’ Well, there’s truly no truer saying on the face of the earth right now. Our most important goal in life should be maintaining optimal health. With our health under crisis, there’s only so much you can do. A misstep in this area has the ability to  take your entire life several steps backwards or even indefinitely stagnant. You can avoid that by making your health a priority. How do you do that? Set goals that will help you stay in your healthiest form. For instance, set goals to walk or run round your neighbourhood for a few hours every day, quit physically detrimental habits, avoid high cholesterol foods, drink a lot of water everyday and also practise meditation exercises to keep your mind and core stable.

Business Goals

Thriving in your business takes a lot more than wishing or buying fancy planners. It is also more than working round the clock and never having a moment of rest. It will really be unfortunate when you realise that you have been doing a lot of work without making any significant progress. To keep your business in business, you must learn to set SMART and industry-specific goals. First, what is the vision for your business? What is the mission? The long term dream? Once you have all of those settled, the next step would be to break them all down and set smaller, measurable objectives which can be resolved on a short term basis. Some examples of business goals would be to enter a new market, get new clients, build new profitable products, and many others.

Family Goals

We know we’ve said this before but this is yet another really important aspect of your life that requires your best effort. Your family should be your one-stop for maintaining your balance and general well-being. This is why setting family goals is very important. These goals are usually geared towards improving family time and building long lasting memories that will continue to strengthen the bond between the members of that family. Some of these goals could be short term, long term or even lifetime based. For instance, your lifetime family goal could be to be a healthy, fit family. To make that more achievable, you could decide to include more veggies in every meal and even create a weekly or monthly family work out day.

Relationship Goals

Do you want to be a better spouse? A better friend? A better colleague? Whatever relationship you share with someone else needs conscious effort to maintain. It doesn’t matter what your personality or zodiac sign is, if you want to be better at your relationships, you;ll need to do it consciously and strategically. And what’s more conscious and strategic than goals? Some relationship goals could include having lunch with your friends every wednesday, offering to babysit your best friend’s kid while she takes time off to relax, calling your old friends on their birthdays, and so on.

Spiritual Goals

You do not necessarily need to be affiliated with any organised religion to be able to set spiritual goals. If you are in tune with your mind, you will realise that there are so many benefits to get from truly connecting to our innermost beliefs and faith. Real spiritual growth helps you get rid of the little foxes that could rob you of your peace and stability. Really connecting with your insides has a great way of opening us up to a higher state of being. Some examples of spiritual goals that are valid for the religious and irreligious involve taking time out for deep reflections and meditations, choosing to take the path of peace regardless of the situation, choosing to serve others even when it is not beneficial, and many others.

Personal Goals

Overall, you should set personal goals that will guarantee that you become a better version of yourself later on in life. That you’re constantly reinventing yourself and making yourself better than the person you used to be. These kinds of goals will ensure that your mind, spirit, soul and body is balanced and continually changing for the better. Some of those personal goals could include reading one book weekly or monthly, getting rid of bad habits, taking personal development courses, getting an education, getting certified in a trade, volunteering, getting therapy, taking cooking classes or even deciding to wake up earlier than usual. The list is endless.

Growth rarely happens by itself. It is usually, and almost always, a result of conscious plans and subsequent actions. With this article, you should no longer be confused about what kind of goals you should set as we have managed to outline some of the most important goals that should be your priority. We hope you eventually make the most of your time! Good luck.

All pictures are from pexels and no attribution is required.