Part one: Long-term goals

Brainstorm: Long-term goals represent major targets in your life. Begin with an eight-minute brainstorm. For eight minutes, write down everything you think you want in your life. Write as fast as you can, and don't worry about accuracy.


Evaluate: Spend the next six minutes looking over your list. Analyze what you wrote. Add anything you missed. Look for common themese or relationships. Then select three long-term goals that are very important to you. Write those goals below.

Long-term goal:



Long-term goal:



Part two: Mid-term goals

Brainstorm: Choose one of your long-term goals and brainstorm a list of goals you might achieve in the next one to five years that would lead to the accomplishment of that one long-term goal. Spend about eight minutes.




Evaluate: Select three items from your brainstorm that you estimate to be the most important in meeting your long-term goal. Write your selections below.

Mid-term goal:



Mid-term goal:





Mid-term goal:



Part three: Short-term goals

Brainstorm: Review your list of mid-term goals and select one. Generate a list of short-term goals that you can accomplish in a year or less that will lead to the accomplishment of that mid-term goal.




Evaluate: Analyze your list of short-term goals and select the three that you estimate will be the most important in meeting your mid-term goal. Write your slections below.

Short-term goal:



Short-term goal:



Short-term goal:



Part four: Next steps

Take a few minutes to reflect on all the goals you selected in this exercise. Look for relationships and think about what these accomplishing these goals mean to you.

To make the process even more powerful you might write a list of small, achievable steps you can take to accomplish each short-term goal.

Repeat this exercise using other long-term goals and use it to make long-term goals real in the here and now.