Milestones and Short-term Goals

Milestones

Whenever looking at large long-term goals it is critical to break them up into more manageable “chunks” that conclude with milestones. Milestones are key points in any project or goal that mark a significant achievement, that are associated with a point in time. Milestones give us a clear indicator that we are either on track for achieving our ultimate goal, or we aren’t. One example of milestones could be associated with a goal of successfully completing high school or college. Every 12 months we would need to successfully complete our Freshman, Sophomore, Junior, and Senior years in order to graduate! Each of those events become milestones on the road to accomplishing our long-term goal.

Milestones are used in every type of project management. Most of life revolves around goals for everything from planning a family vacation to building the next space shuttle. Too often people get swept up in fulfilling other people's goals and never consider their own, or what goals God has planned for them to achieve with the life they've been given.

Not every goal will have milestones. Typically short term goals, unless they are very complex, may not need milestones. However, milestones ALWAYS need short term goals in order to be accomplished!

Once you have determined what your long term goals are, AND WRITE THEM DOWN, you're ready to develop your milestones. Every milestone MUST have two things:

A Specific and Quantifiable (Measurable) Target. (It might help to Write a Description of what will be Accomplished)
A Specific Date When it Must Be Completed.

Go ahead now. Write out your milestones for each of your Long-Term Goals!

MIlestones, Short-Term Goals, and Actions AUDIO DISCUSSION


Short-term Goals

Every milestone will require steps to be taken to achieve them. You might need to learn new things, or gain a new skill, or make contact with someone, or perhaps raise a certain amount of money to achieve the milestone. These short-term goals are the next level or your plan to achieve your BIG goals. Your short-term actions will enable you to accomplish your Milestones.

Using the Milestones you just developed for your Long-Term goals, begin developing Short-Term Goals that will enable you to reach them! I know this is a lot of work! However, this is the best possible way for you to reach those wonderful Big Goals you know God has placed in your heart to accomplish! Now is the time to get started!

Actions

Actions are the essence of accomplishing anything! Actions translate good intentions into something tangible on an established timeframe. Actions must contain at least THREE things:

1 What must be done? __________________________________________
2 Who will do it? __________________________________________
3 When will it be done? __________________________________________

For every Short-term Goal you should have an Action Plan.

Let’s continue with developing your plan and go to work, writing out specific Actions for each of your Short-Term Goals!


Homework - Summary

1. For every BIG goal develop milestones. Write them down!
2. For every milestone, develop short-term goals.
3. For every short-term goals develop specific actions. Get very detailed and always indicate WHAT, WHO, and WHEN.
4. Begin reading Chapter 4 – time management.

Overview of the Goal Setting Process AUDIO

Future Meetings Discussion AUDIO


Reminder – this is not a philosophy course. You’ve invested a lot of time and work to get this far – the GOAL is to make your goals a reality! Developing this plan is the most critical milestone you may ever accomplish!

John Goddard - Ultimate Goal Setting!

When you speak of keeping lists and setting goals, it's hard to match the amazing accomplishments of John Goddard. Today he's accomplished over 550 big goals in his lifetime, and he's still going!

The attached link is to a YouTube video where he was interviewed sometime in the late 1990's. It's only about 7 minutes long but worth a watch. It should inspire you and help you think about all the impossible possibilities that God can do in you and through you.

There's no evidence in what I've read regarding Goddard's faith, but for those who believe "all things are possible." If you choose to, I suspect with God, you would make Goddard envious of your accomplishments!


YouTube Video of John Goddard