|

Short Term Goal Ideas for Summer

This post may contain affiliate links, which means that if you click on a link and make a purchase, I will receive a small commission. This is no extra cost to you, but it does enable my addiction to Target. Please see my full disclosure policy for details.

Short Term Goal Setting is a powerful way to make progress on your larger goals. Use these summer goal setting tips to set yourself up for a summer of goal crushing success! 

When most people think about goals that they can tackle during the warmer summer months, they think of fitness goals or maybe vacation ideas. But there are so many other types of goals that you can focus on during the most carefree and refreshing time of the year.

Taking time to focus on short term goals is important for a couple of reasons. The first being that you can use it as a way to refresh your longer-term goals or take a status check. If you are falling behind on one of your longer-term goals, you can make a plan to start getting back on track. And if one of the goals you set at the start of the year no longer makes sense then use this as a time to update it or scrap it all together to make room for growth in other, more important areas.

The other reason why making time for short-term goals is important is to give yourself a chance to achieve success in quicker doses. Have you noticed how much easier it is to clean out your closet once you start seeing the progress being made? You will find that same push can be applied to most areas of your life when you find yourself making progress in even just one small goal.

Most people define short-term goals as goals that can be achieved in 1 year or less. But in this stage of young motherhood, I am looking for some shorter time frames for my goals! Things can change so quickly in this season of life that we need to plan to be a little more nimble. I still want to make progress on my longer term goals, but I have no idea if my kid’s nap schedules will look the same from month to month. So my short term goals are mostly set quarterly or monthly.

These short term goal ideas below will focus on things that you can achieve in the 3-4 months that span the summer season, but you can apply these practices in place for any time of year. If you are interested in setting longer-term goals, take some time to review how to best set goals for the year.

Planning For Short Term Goal Success

Brainstorm Your Goals

Your first step in this process is to brainstorm your goal ideas. While you want to give yourself the freedom to explore lots of options, there are a few constraints that you are going to want to put on your brainstorming session.

The first being that you want to make sure that the goal ideas or focus areas you want to work on can be accomplished in 3-4 months. For example, you wouldn’t likely be able to lose 5 dress sizes in under 4 months (without it being very unhealthy), but you could likely lose 1-2 dress sizes in that period of time.

You also want to brainstorm goals that are seasonally appropriate. It may be a dream of yours to learn how to ski, but that goal isn’t going to be attainable during the summer months (without some very brave travel to Antarctica).

Group Goals Into Focus Areas

Once you have brainstormed some goal ideas, go back through your ideas and group them into similar areas of focus. This is great to see how excited you might be about making progress in a certain part of your life during that season. Examples of focus areas might be fitness, faith, marriage & family, career, or personal growth.

Plan Your Time

Now that you have these short term goal ideas all brainstormed and grouped, we need to figure out how much you can realistically accomplish. It is so easy to look at a blank slate of possibilities and try to fill up every bit of it with progress opportunities.

I have a personality type where I love to start new things and always look at new seasons with wide eyes and opportunities. But I forget that there are other ongoing tasks that I am going to have to do (ie: laundry, ongoing job responsibilities and even sleeping). Not to mention that during summer most of us love to take a little time off to travel and relax!

And there is nothing that can crash a great short term goal season like getting a few weeks in and realizing that you are exhausted and can’t possibly continue at this pace. More likely than not, at that stage, people will abandon all goals completely, instead of just tapering their plans back a bit.

So be sure not to skip this step as it will certainly set you up for success in the long run! You won’t be able to tackle every single goal that you wrote down in the brainstorming process, but that is ok! It is much better to make progress on a few goals than to make no progress on many goals.

Short Term Goal Ideas for Summer

If you are ready to get started with the goal-setting process outlined earlier but aren’t quite sure where to start, use the ideas listed below as a way to jumpstart your brainstorming!

Career Goals

  • Attend 3 networking events
  • Take on one additional project for your team
  • Attend a conference
  • Arrive to meetings on-time or 5 minutes early
  • Map out a plan for career growth over the next year

Family Goals

Faith Goals

Fitness and Health Goals

  • Add seasonal foods into your meal plan
  • Try a new outdoor workout
  • Get more rest
  • Evaluate your gym membership or try using a home gym
  • Create a family fitness plan (more accountability = more success!)
  • Set limits on screen time for all family members

Personal Goals

  • Read X amount of new books
  • Create a summer savings plan and spending budget
  • Find a self-care routine that works
  • Organize and declutter your most used home spaces
  • Reach out consistently to friends
  • Keep a gratitude journal
  • Spend time outdoors

What short-term goals are you going to set this summer? Make the most of your time and remember that any progress you make is to be celebrated!

PIN ME

Similar Posts

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *