Time flies. Another year-end approaches. Are you on track to reach your goals this year? If not, it may be because your goals are too big or too long term.

There’s nothing wrong with big goals. It’s just that we tend to fixate on the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow and forget about the short-term activities it takes to get there.

When a goal takes months or years to reach, it’s easy to lose sight of what we’re supposed to be doing today. We need to couple our big goals with short-term goals that we can track on a daily basis.

One author says the problem with long(er) term goals is that there’s no sense of urgency. It’s too easy to tell ourselves that we have lots of time before the deadline, and our mantra becomes, “I’ll do it tomorrow”.

Before we know it, days turn into weeks and months and the deadline has come and gone.

His solution is to break up big goals into goals that can be accomplished in seven days.

“If you can’t accomplish it in seven days, the goal is too big. It’s all right to have a big goal on the horizon, but you’ll never get there if you can’t break it down into actionable steps. So ask yourself, “If my massive goal is all the way over there, what do I need to get done this week to move myself in that direction?”

I think most of us manage our lives with a weekly calendar, so breaking things up into weekly goals makes sense. We might not be able to see what a month looks like but next Monday is just around the corner.

So much has been written about goal setting it can make your head hurt.

Many say you should set big goals because they fuel your passion and drive you to reach great heights. Small goals aren’t inspiring, they say. Without big goals, you won’t accomplish big things.

They also point out that if you fall short of achieving your big goal you’ll still be ahead. “Reach for the sun, the moon, and the stars, and you might get the sun and the moon,” they tell us.

But if you’ve ever set big, hairy, audacious goals, and not come close to reaching them, you know there’s something missing in this equation.

Have you ever put up posters with affirmations declaring your big goal, or vision boards resplendent with the goodness that awaits you when you achieve it? It’s exciting at first, but when years go by and you’re not even close to reaching your goal, your goal isn’t inspiring you, it’s doing just the opposite.

What then? Should you set lower, more “realistic” goals? If you aren’t close to a goal of $500,000 per year in income, for example, should you change the goal to $150,000?

No. Don’t lower your goals. That’s no fun at all.

Keep the big goals because they really are inspiring. When you go through a rough spot, your big goals give you a reason to keep going. They remind you that what you’re doing may be hard but it’s worth it.

So what you do?

First, see your big goal for what it really is, a dream, something you’re working to achieve some day. Forget about “when” you will achieve it, or “how”.

You can’t make a dream come true by simply choosing a “due date” for it. Nor is it possible to know how you will make it happen. There are too many variables and unknowns and trying to figure it all out in advance usually leads to anxiety and disappointment.

Instead of “when” and “how,” focus on “what” and “why”.

Think about what you want to be, do, or have, and why this is important to you. Think about how you will feel when you get there, and enjoy that feeling.

By acknowledging what you want and why you want it but remaining flexible about when and how you achieve it, you give emotional power to your dream, allowing it to continue to inspire you, instead of putting soul-crushing pressure on you to make it happen.

But you need something else.

You need to set short-term goals related to the big goal that are likely to move you forward towards achieving it. But whereas your long-term goal is about results, your short-term goals should be about activities.

Again, you can’t predict or control results. You don’t know when (or if) something will happen, or how.

But you can control your activities.

If your long-term goal or dream is to hit the $500, 000 income level, one of your short-term activity goals might be to contact two new prospective referral sources each week. That’s an activity you can control and it is almost certain to increase your income.

Establish a series of small, short-term activity goals that will move you towards your long-term goal. Hitting those goals is how you’ll make your dream come true.

How to find and approach new referral sources

A friend of mine, a successful lawyer, business owner, and speaker, frequently tells his audiences, “You’re not thinking big enough”. He says most people set goals that are too small and quit when they hit the first obstacle.

Small goals may be achievable but they’re not exciting. They don’t motivate us to overcome our fears or to keep going in the face of defeat. Only big, seemingly unachievable goals have that power.

Bob Proctor says, “If you know what to do to reach your goal, it’s not a big enough goal”. He says,

“Set a goal to achieve something that is so big, so exhilarating that it excites you and scares you at the same time. It must be a goal that is so appealing, so much in line with your spiritual core that you can’t get it out of your mind. If you do not get chills when you set a goal, you’re not setting big enough goals.”

Grant Cardone, author of “The 10x Rule,” makes the same assertion. He says that the biggest mistake people make in life is not setting big enough goals. We should set goals that are 10X greater than what we believe we can achieve, he says.

I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking that this is a dream, not a goal. A goal is something we have some basis for believing we can achieve.

Dream? Goal? I’m not sure it matters what you call it. All I know is that if we’re not excited about it, we’re not going to give it much energy. And we need a lot of energy to achieve anything great. Cardone says that we should take action that is 10X greater than what we believe is necessary to achieve our goal.

I don’t know about you but if I’m going to work that hard, it better be worth it.

A marketing plan gives you a place to start. Here’s the one I recommend