Short Term Business Goals May Be The Answer To Your Long Term Failures

I was recently reading a personal finance blog where the author explained that he had paid all of his debts in full. His initial course of action was to pay off the bills with the largest interest rates first. Unfortunately the bills with the largest interest rates, were also the biggest of the bunch. And he ended up becoming discouraged because the bigger bills took much longer to pay off. So he changed his course of action and worked on paying off the smallest debts first. Seeing the smaller bills getting knocked off quickly gave him the motivation to keep moving towards paying off the larger bills. As a result of this strategy he eliminated $35,000+ in debt. A major achievement indeed! Not only is this a wonderful guideline for freeing yourself from debt, it's also quite beneficial to adopt as you're working on your business goals. If you're one of those people who gets easily excited about tackling a large goal - only to stop midway because it's not as easy as it looks, then focusing on more short term business goals will help you reach a greater level of success. Whether you're working on a long-term or short-term business goal, you need a plan. And for short-term business goals you need a plan that's specifically designed to work within a smaller time frame. Here's are four steps to help you do just that: 1) Choose reachable goals only.nIf you've never made $20,000 in 30 days, and the concept of making large amounts of cash in short periods of time is completely foreign to you, then don't choose that as your short term business goal. Nine times out of ten you're going to fail because you'll have to overcome a mental hurdle. And that task of confidence may take longer than 30-days. Now hear me out... I'm saying this to take the wind out of your sails. On the contrary, I believe you should be using your greatest strengths when pursuing a short term business goal. You should feel confident about the task at hand, not intimidated by it. And the only way to do that is by choosing goals that fall within the realm of possiblity. You should feel that even if this wasn't a short term goal experience, you'd still be able to achieve it. 2) Determine a time frame for completion.nA short term business goal should have a deadline that spans 30-days or less. I personally prefer tighter deadlines because they prevent procrastination and they don't give me the luxury of overthinking a process (otherwise known as analysis paralysis). Whenever I have a smaller than usual deadline I know I have to get my creative juices flowing and jump right into a course of action. Surprisingly, this forced rapid thinking process has delivered more positive results than the work I've done when I've had a lot of time to spare. 3) Eliminate a distraction - (or two, or even three).nI have a new found habit - watching the home shopping channels. The deals that can be found are deliciously stunning. However when I'm working on a short term business goal, I simply don't allow myself the luxury of watching my new favorite television channels. And when I've allowed myself to indulge, I get sucked into watching an hour-long segment when I should be working. Even five minutes here and ten minutes there can easily add up to several wasted hours at the end of a week. Maybe your mindless distraction falls in the form of celebrity tabloid magazines. Perhaps it's an hour of video games every night after dinner. Or aimlessly wandering the ailes of your favorite beauty supply shop - (which I'm guilty of too!). Whatever it is, stop. You are hereby not permitted to engage in this distracting activity until your short term business goal has been reached. 4) Eat a piece of the elephant every, single day.nWith the exception of death, extreme illness and religious purposes, short term business goals should be pursued on a daily basis. NOT every other day. NOT on the weekends only. I'm talking every day. Like clockwork. The problem most people have is that a one-day break yields another one-day break. And once you skip two days, the third is a given. Before you know it, your deadline has passed, and you're caught like a deer in the headlights. Short term business goals are meant to be pursued with full force. Whether that means you've gotta wake up an hour early and go to bed an hour late, do it. Do it every day until your job is done. n