Difference between Long-term and Short-term Life Goal

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Difference between Long-term and Short-term Life Goal

Defining one’s goal in life is perhaps one among the most important things that one needs to accomplish whilst going about their daily activities. Indeed, having a clear goal in life gives people headway and helps in the planning of various things that concern daily living. Rick Warren, in his book, The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For gives meaning to the term life goal. Warren records that life goal is a plan put in motion to ensure that one achieves his targets (Warren, 2012). Surprisingly, the targets that are to be achieved in life can also be part of life goal. Life goals can be either long-term or short-term depending on various factors. However, there is a clear difference between long-term and short-term goals with time being the leading differentiating factor.

Long-term goals in life can well be defined as the targets set to be achieved after an extensive period. This period may be years to come, months or centuries. Greg L. Thomas deduces in his book, Making Life’s Puzzle Pieces Fit that long-term goals are targets that require a long time and great efforts to accomplish. He continues to record that long-term goals are the leading objectives that one is determined to accomplish in his or her life (Thomas, 2009). Short-term goals, on the other hand, are the stepping-stones that one uses to accomplish the long-term objectives. Thus, short-term goals are small objectives that are commonly accomplished within a short period. These goals may take days, or a few weeks to accomplish. Hence, the time elapsed when one is accomplishing short-term or long-term goals forms the initial difference between the two.

The effort focused towards the accomplishment of a goal may be another key difference between long-term and short-term objectives in life. Short-term goals require less effort in comparison to long-term life goals. Life’s short-term goals are easily achievable, and can be used as a ladder that one can climb in order to accomplish long-term objectives. However, this does not necessarily make short-term goals in life easily achievable by all. One’s personality is among the leading factors that determine the feasibility of goals, whether long-term or short-term. Some people possess the required motivation to help them accomplish goals while others lack it, and they fail to achieve the targets in life (Warren, 2012).

The effect of a goal, once it has been achieved is yet another difference between long-term and short-term goals. Long-term goals have an immense impact on one’s life since they take great effort and extensive time to achieve. On the other hand, short-term goals have minimal effect on one’s life as they are easily completed and require less effort. Long-term goals, for instance, may involve buying a huge house, which once achieved, will eventually transform one’s lifestyle. Short-term goals may involve getting a job, for instance, which will help one acquire the funds to accomplish the long-term targets. However, this does not make any of the goals less important, especially short-term objectives (Thomas, 2009).

A combination of the two goals in one’s life gives meaning to life and helps one achieve a lot. In addition, having short-term goals catapults one towards achieving the long-term goals. Thus, it is vivid that there exist major differences between short-term and long-term objectives in life. However, such differences do not necessarily make them unachievable when one aims to accomplish them both simultaneously. Completing both short-term and long-term goals simultaneously is an almost sure way of succeeding in life’s objectives.

References

Thomas, L., (2009). Making life’s puzzle pieces fit: Using the twelve principles of personal leadership. Indiana, IN: Xlibris Corporation location.

Warren, R., (2012). The purpose driven life: What on earth am I here for? Michigan, MI: Zondervan.