60+ Mid-Term Goals to Give Your Life a New Direction

In my earlier posts, I have outlined why it is important to set short-term goals, mid-term goals, and long-term goals for your personal life. In this post, I will expand on some specific mid-term goal examples (or medium-term goals) and explain why setting medium-term & long-term goals is important.

I realized early on that most of the life goals that I set were short-term goals, meaning that they could be achieved in a few weeks.

However, I have realized that it’s really important to think beyond a few weeks to set goals for the medium-term (for the next 1-2 years). We’ll go through some good mid-term goal examples to give you a clear idea of what they look like.

Mid-Term Goals Can Give Your Life A New Direction

The reason it is important to set mid-term goals (as well as long-term goals) is that a lot of things take longer than just a few weeks to accomplish (short-term goals).

For example, a career change will require several months of work and preparation, which could include training, networking with new people or completing a certificate to help with the transition (or even getting a new degree). These are very important changes to your life and you need to plan ahead. Often, you will need to work on short-term milestones to help you get to your mid-term goals.

For example, if you want to pay off your house early, save for a down payment or pay for your children to get an education, you will also need to plan this several years ahead of time. So let’s review some good mid-term goal examples.

The things that we want don’t just happen because we hope that they will. It takes hard work and planning to make your dreams a reality.

Mid-Term Goal Examples

The following medium-term goals are likely to take at least at least a year to achieve (and not just a few months):

Medium-Term Career goals:

The key to success in your career is always setting realistic and actionable goals. Some examples of medium-term career goals are: 

• Finish a bachelor’s or master’s degree
• Earn a professional certificate/diploma
• Change career or company
• Get a promotion
• Master a new skill
• Become a manager of your team
• Strengthen your portfolio with new projects
• Build your personal brand as an expert
• Start a side business or a new business
• Increase your performance metrics 

Medium-Term Family goals:

While you are furthering your career, don’t forget about nurturing your family life. A balance between personal and professional life ensures that you stay happy and healthy. So, think about setting some medium-term family goals such as:

• Find a partner
• Plan a wedding
• Start a family
• Have another baby
• Meet with family members more regularly (this one will have to wait till post-pandemic)
• Build and grow a family garden
• Work towards each member’s personal goals
• Go on an annual family vacation abroad
• Have your son/daughter join your business
• Help your children master a skill

Medium-Term Financial goals:

A secure financial future is important for not just your comfort but your family’s as well. If long-term goals scare you, you can start with medium-term financial goals today for a better tomorrow. Some examples are:

• Pay off student loan
• Reduce mortgage 
• Save for a down payment
• Purchase a house
• Purchase a rental property
• Move to a bigger house
• Remodel your house
• Save $XXX
• Save for your child’s education
• Save for a new car
• Create an emergency fund (6-month of living expenses)
• Create passive income by investing in real estate or the stock market

Medium-Term Health or Fitness Goals:

The biggest mistake we make while racing for money is ignoring our health. A healthy diet and a manageable fitness routine should be a permanent part of your life. Here are some examples of medium-term health or fitness goals:

• Decrease your weight to X pounds
• Lower your cholesterol to X
• Build a new habit to exercise daily for 10 minutes at home (for at least six months)
• Train for a 10-mile run
• Drop a couple dress sizes
• Increase lifts by 30%
• Be able to perform 50 pushups in one go
• Eliminate junk food from your diet 
• Climb a mountain
• Stick to eating more veggies

Medium-Term Life goals:

Life goals are important to gain a sense of purpose and focus on things that matter to you. Some examples of medium-term life goals are:

• Move to the city of your dreams
• Take your dream vacation
• Learn a new hobby that requires a medium-term or long-term commitment (playing the piano, running for a half-marathon, learning woodworking, etc).
• Master culinary skills
• Volunteer to help others 
• Travel to your home country
• Travel to two countries abroad
• Learn a foreign language
• Built an art collection
• Visit 10 libraries 
• Write in your journal/blog daily for a year
• Move to a new apartment

Medium-Term Spiritual goals:

You may achieve an outward outward success, but to feed your inner hunger and live a meaningful life, you need to set spiritual goals. Some examples of medium-term spiritual goals are:

• Meditate for 10 minutes everyday for a year
• Go on a mission trip
• Finish reading the Bible
• If daily reading is not possible, listen to an audio copy of the Bible every morning
• Participate in an online Bible study
• Support a deserving family financially
• Attend the church service every Sunday for a year
• Memorize scripture 
• Increase your good deeds
• Learn 50 new prayers

All of these mid-term goal examples are realistic to achieve in a time frame of approximately 1 to 5 years.

How Can You Come Up with the Right Medium-Term Goals?

There is a very simple technique to get started. It works on all kinds of goals but you can set yourself a specific time-frame to come up with medium term goals. Ask yourself,“What do I want my life to look like in 2 years?”.

For mid-term goals, simply ask yourself, “What do I want my life to look like in 1-5 years?”. What would make you happy? Discovering the world, learning a new fun hobby, move house, move city, get a more exciting career? These are all fun things to think about that will require (most of the time) more than just a few months of planning.

But Setting Goals Isn’t Enough

To really make your goals happen, you need to figure out what steps need to happen for you to accomplish those goals.

To get the right goals, it is important to WRITE THEM DOWN! Most people (including me!) prefer to day dream. However, a lot of research shows that writing your goals significantly increases your changes of achieving them.

For example, a study on fitness by the Journal of Health Psychology  examined how concrete plans would change exercise participation (2). The participation rate of people who did not write down a specific plan was only 30% but it increased dramatically to 90% for people who had written down their plan! (Learn more).

This is simply because writing down your goals forces you to really think about the right goals, and forces you to set an objective (not just day-dream about it).

Just saying that your goal is to pay for your children to get an education won’t necessarily make it a reality: you need to determine how much exactly you want to save, and then break that up into a monthly or yearly savings goal.

If you want to get a new job and change careers, figure out first what books, training, certificate or degree will get you there. Create a schedule for how you will take classes that you need to be ready for your new career.

The “Smart” Goal Format Also Work for Medium-Term Goals

Simply follow these recommendations to set “Smart” goals. Smart goals are widely recognized as being the best goals to set as they are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timely.

Related posts about setting goals:

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