Create short-term and long-term goals

- We've talked about identifying your goals and working backwards, defining the milestones you need to hit to get to where you want to be, so now let's talk about short-term and long-term goals. I'll define a long-term goals as something that is the fulfillment of dream and will take many steps to achieve, and short-term goals are the milestones you need to hit in order to get there. We get overwhelmed by just how many steps we'll need to take to achieve our long-term goals, and how long the process might last. Big projects look like a giant mountain that's really scary to have to climb. Instead, imagine each of the steps you will need to take are small hills, easily climbed. After you've successfully completed each task, you can congratulate yourself for a job well done. Eventually you'll have climbed every hill and accomplished your long-term goal. Using our previous example of the person who thinks they want to become a consultant. Let's say that after doing two or three months of research, or due diligence, she, let's call her Monica, has decided that, yes, she wants to become a consultant and offer financial advice to small businesses of any type within 20 square miles of where she lives. Monica's learned that small business will hire financial consultants, but they're more likely to do so if the consultant is a CPA or certified public accountant. So, while the long-term goal is to be a financial consultant to small, local businesses, one of her short-term goals is to get her CPA. So she has to look at all the steps she needs to take. The state in which she lives has specific requirements. She learns that she'll need a four year college degree plus additional instruction in business and accounting beyond the degree. At this point, she has to ask herself how badly she wants to be a consultant. Is she, and are you, willing to do whatever it takes to accomplish the goal? Success comes to those who have a combination of talent and drive. Let's assume Monica has a facility with numbers and understands what small businesses need on the financial side. Is she driven enough to do all the things she needs to do in order to be in a position to have those businesses pay for her expertise. She, and you, will need to recommit to your goal along the way, especially when things look bleak and you just can't believe what else you still have to do. What will pull you through is your focus on the long-term goal and your unwillingness to allow anything to get in the way. Then again, in one of those moments of soul searching, you may find that no, you are not willing to proceed to the next step. This is why you want to do a great deal of research before starting the trip, so you'll have realistic expectations of how much work you're going to need to do. But, despite all that research, at a certain point you may still choose not to go on, that this just isn't for you, and it's okay. Better to abort the project than discover years later that this was not a good fit. You'll be able to look back and see that you gave it your best shot and it just didn't make sense to continue. You'll be freed up to find something that will work better for you, a career in which you can truly flourish.