How to Set and Achieve Medium-Term Goals

Our future and what we want to see as part of it is a constant thought in everyone's mind. Maybe you want to save some money to have your own house on the outskirts. Or maybe you are dreaming about landing a higher-paying job and spending your retirement in the Maldives or simply learning a new skill.

Goal setting is also an important part of every business. We carefully plan how to accomplish the written goals and increase the income in the established period. Making all our objectives actually happen requires constant work, careful planning, the right approach, and being able to adjust to the current situation.

So, how to make your ultimate long-term goal achievable? Here are the stepping stones for medium-term goals to come in. In this article, you will learn about what is a medium-term goal, how it is different from other goals as well as advice on how to correctly introduce it to your workload to achieve the desired progress.

The Definition of the Mid-Term Goal

If you want to build a thriving business, you must set short-, medium-, and long-term goals as a part of your company's entire workflow. To better understand how to achieve medium-term goals, we must learn how they are different from the other goal types and what role they play in your success.

What Is a Medium-Term Goal?

A medium-term goal is a set of objectives that the person, team, or organization plan achieving in one to five years. If you are a small business, some of your medium-term goals can also have a timeframe of only a couple of months, while for some individual cases of large corporations, these take up to 10 years. However, the standard period is usually up to 5 years.

When setting medium-term goals in your personal life, you should focus on creating 2-7 suitable objectives for every aspect. Determine the areas you want to develop. These can include career and job, health, training, and saving a specific amount. For example, the process of saving money for a down payment.

Basically, this is how the connection to other goal types can be explained:

• Medium-term goals are based on the outcomes of the short-term goals;

• At the same time, Medium-term goals act as a base for achieving long-term goals.

Medium-Term Goals and Short-Term Goals

When talking about the timeframe to achieve short-term goals, it is usually set from a few months up to a year. These are a necessity to reach the medium-term goals and track the progress on the way.

Even if it seems that several tasks are not connected and have only a short-term impact, a medium-term goal is what brings it all together. It creates context and the desired objective so everyone can see how each single action brings you closer to the desired outcome.

For example, you have a medium-term goal: to increase income from the social media platform. With the help of short-term goals like creating a seasonal campaign or collaborating with the influenced, this "bigger goal" can be achieved.

Medium-Term Goals and Long-Term Goals

Setting goals that define the course of the company's entire development is not only challenging but essential for every step you are about to take. This is where long-term goals come in.

They usually take up to 10 years to accomplish. So, you need to think about it in advance. To achieve your long-term aspirations, you must build a stable professional network, translate your ideas to the right people, and focus on progress each step of the way.

All mid-term goals serve as a checkpoint on the way to the long-term goal. You're building up your success and tracking if everything goes according to the initial timeframes.

One of the life examples is buying a house. This is your long-term goal. However, to achieve it, you must first save for a down payment. Based on your current financial status, you might be working on achieving it for the next three years. So, this is your medium-term goal.

How Important Are Medium-Term Goals?

At this point, you understand that mid-term goals help achieve long-term goals as well as any short-term goal, no matter how small. But what are the exact ways it can help you develop your business?

Here are the main reasons medium-term goal setting is vital:

• Creating achievable objectives. The process of getting to the long-term goal is simplified with smaller checkpoints like medium-term goals.

• Creating encouragement and task purpose. With medium-term goals, there are not only more opportunities for bonus programs but, at the same time, building an understanding of what impact each task has in the long run.

• Adjusting actions based on the changes and special circumstances. In the modern, fast-changing world, something works one day, and then it stops working the next. You must stay relevant and constantly monitor how achievable the objectives are.

How to Set Goals for Medium-Term Objectives

If you do not know where to start or are looking for some ways to start putting effort into establishing short-, medium-, and long-term goals, there are some generally used techniques. These are easy to implement into your business planning routine since they usually do not require lots of thinking and are used in many life aspects.

It is better to start with something simple than to delay your progress for a week or a few years. Here's a list of widely spread methods to help you begin setting medium-term goals:

Create a Checklist

The first thing you need to do is to write down a long-term goal. After that, break down what should be done to achieve it and start writing it down as well.

You do not need to think about every little action that can lead to the success of your business. Go for bigger actions. If you want to save time and have this list available for each team member, consider investing in multi-value software, like a CRM, to aid in planning and managing achieved results.

Outline a MindMap

This is a visual method that can be helpful to more people by showing the connections between various actions. It starts with putting one of the long-term goals in the center. You can additionally circle it for better perception.

From that center, start drawing more circles with essential steps that will help you achieve the main goal. Such goal setting is great for further planning since you can continue to break down each circle, outlining short-term goals as well.

For this method to work, you need easy-navigated software with visual features. Most of the best CRMs can provide such features, and some can even be used for free. This comes in especially handy if you are a small business.

Brain Dump

With this technique, every idea has a value. Do not overthink it, and write down everything that comes to your mind. Whether it seems impossible or not, or you feel like this is something to be only dreaming about, write it down.

When you have finally drawn everything you could possibly think of, review the list with more critical thinking. Everything that I left is your medium-term goals.

A brain dump is better done with a team. When several minds is working together, you can come up with an unexpected combination of ideas. To keep track of every proposition and make sure everyone is heard, always choose to work with the best collaboration tools. These will allow you to keep all the examples as well as make notes during the conversation.

Best Methods to Establish a Mid-Term Goal

After you have done the job of middle-term goal setting, it is time to learn how you can have them achieved. The course that you establish is going to define the next one to five years. Choosing the suitable method will not only save you time and money but determine the success of your long-term goal.

SMART Goal Setting

This is a widely spread tactic that helps teams keep the progress without missing any deadlines. You can also set a SMART method for short-term goals to make sure everything goes according to the established plan.

The acronym stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. Let's dive into each element of the strategy.

• Specific

Be very precise about the aim of each goal. Every team member must know there are responsibilities. The objective must be clear, as well as why it is important and how it influences the company's future.

• Measurable

You must have specific metrics to track both the success and impact of every action and every person. At the same time, the goal must have numbers, identifying the success of the accomplished workю

For example, you have a savings goal. You must not only determine how much money you want to save but also track the amount you add over each period. You can track by every week, every year, or two years; just make sure to analyze what influences every outcome.

Serving various intermediate financial goals is easier with tracking and analytics software at hand. Look into online-based solutions to help you stay on track.

• Achievable

You may fish to make a million dollars in two years, even put it as a down, yet chances are this is not going to happen. Be real about what should be achieved and plan according to what you have.

Focus on graduate and stable progress. The best way to make data-driven decisions is to obtain an analytics tool to help you set reachable medium-term goals for five years ahead.

• Relevant

Your product or service must always have value to the potential customer. Keep in mind that some goals or processes might be adjusted based on the circumstances.

• Time-bound

Make sure that every action has a deadline. Set for periods. Each project, as well as a short-term goal, should have a set of deadlinesю. This way, you will be able to successfully reach medium-term goals and, as a result, long-term goals in the future.

HARD Goal Setting

If you want to build your goal-setting around motivation and creating a sense of unity, the HARD method is for you. It stands for Heartfelt, Animated, Required, and Difficult.

• Heartfelt

You, as a business owner, can relate to what your brand stands for more than everyone else. By creating the same attachment in your employees, you help them pursue the goal with passion and deep understanding.

• Animated

You have to help others to see your vision of the goal. Use various charts and boards during the meeting; help them see the product or service with your eyes.

• Required

Make sure to define the priorities when achieving mid-term goals. For example, if the customer's account does not work and this is the only way to place the order on the website, you must change the workload to fix the issue.

• Difficult

Help your employees grow. Everyone is comfortable completing the familiar tasks. However, providing a challenge to let someone shine in a new light is also a good idea. Help them get out of their comfort zone and show their true potential.

OKRs Goal Setting

This is another widely used method to achieve medium-term goals that can close bound to numbers and have a strict deadline. The Acronym OKRs stands for Objectives and Key Results.

To implement this method, you must first outline the objective. Try to be persistent and short. To measure the progress along the way, establish about 3 results that must be achieved to reach the goal.

Backward Goal Setting

So, what if, instead of starting in the beginning, we started at the end? Let's imagine you have a goal that you want to reach or maybe an idea that you want to come true. And you start outlining everything that will help you achieve it starting from the endpoint.

This strategy is one of the examples of less stressful planning. For most, it is easier to start from another end because the actions can be more obvious, or maybe just a thought of starting to make you terrified.

You can add an additional long-, medium-, or short-term goal at any step. This way, the process becomes less overwhelming.

Milestone Outlining

The idea of this method is pretty simple - create some milestones on the way to the final goals to make it less horrifying. These can not be described as short-term goals but more like checkpoints you need to pass in order to make sure everything is done according to the timeline.

For goals that are set for five years ahead, you can create yearly milestones. For the ones planned for two years - quarterly.

Tips For Establishing Medium-Term Goals

Sometimes, it seems that you are doing everything accordingly, yet the results do not satisfy you. Here are some tips for the mid-term goal setting process:

• Know your reasoning.

You must always understand why you are doing what you are doing. This not only keeps you motivated but also helps you work harder since you know your benefits.

It is not enough to just put the, "pay out the student loan debt". Review how it can influence our future and what you are getting from doing it.

• Reevaluate the progress.

Not everything always goes according to the initial plan. There are a million things that can influence your way of accomplishing a goal. This is why you need to schedule several reevaluations.

These help you see if the project timeline is still intact. At the same time, in case of an emergency, you will be able to fix the potential issue in a timely manner.

• Be specific.

If there is room for interpretation, be sure that at least one team member will think in the wrong direction. You must be specific not only to help everyone stay on the same page but to clearly understand what it is that you are working so hard for.

This way, you will know what metrics to use and what actions will lead to the desired results without wasting time on the variables. The final goal is not clear. It is very easy to lose reading for everything that you do.

• Be able to adjust.

Mid-term goals might require a lot of flexibility for you since so much can change in two years or more. Do not be afraid of change. Adjusting the course of your actions will help you stay relevant and, at the same time, discover new ways to develop.

• Go through your list of goals more often.

We all are humans, and we forget things. Most of the time, we are focused on the present, and longer-term planning just gets to the back of our heads.

Review the list every 8 to 12 weeks just to stay on track. You can always use scheduling reminders to make time for this task.

Examples of Medium-Term Goals

Setting medium-term goals is important for both your personal and professional life. They help you become better and feel more accomplished in your life. To help you get started, we have prepared a list of examples.

Home Renovation

Whether you are planning to do it ourselves or hire a constructor, it can take you up to 5 years. Plan your budget, revise your other intermediate financial goals, and save time to start the project.

Learn a Language

Choose the language that feels close to your heart. Download the apps and find a tutor if you do not think you can follow through by yourself. Finally, provide time and budget to start. Give yourself a time limit for each level to stay productive.

Pay Off the Student Loan Debt

Make some analysis and, based on the remaining amount, set a deadline for paying off the student loan debt. For example:

"To pay off the dept in 5 years, I am going to pay 400$ a month, so I need to save at least 100$ a week."

Buy a House

"If I want to buy a house, I need to save for the down payment in a year, set up an emergency fund, and open an account."

Set Up a Garden in a Backyard

"I want to grow a garden to enjoy spring and summer flowers and self-grown greens and vegetables."