Adventure travel | Artistic pursuits |
Be a good parent | Become a leader |
Become a manager | Become an expert in your field |
Become debt free | Become more healthy |
Build an emergency fund | Build character strengths |
Build friendships | Build professional connections |
Build up your social skills | Buy a home |
Buy a vacation home | Career advancement |
Career change | Community engagement |
Cultivate resilience and grit | Cultural experiences |
Develop your communication skills | Develop your professional skills |
Develop your technical skills | Do good |
Early retirement | Epic experiences |
Establish a trust fund | Establish family traditions |
Family bonds | Family life |
Family traditions | Family trips |
Financial freedom | Financial stability |
Gain experience | Graduate degrees |
Healthy relationships | Higher education |
Improve in a sport | Increase your income |
Invent something | Lead change in your industry |
Learn a language | Learn a musical instrument |
Lifelong learning | Lifestyle transformations |
Live a cultured life | Live abroad |
Marriage & partnerships | Master a martial art |
Meaningful work | Overcome a fear |
Overcome adversity | Pay off a mortgage |
Performing arts pursuits | Personal growth |
Physical fitness | Professional advancement |
Professional reputation | Public speaking accomplishments |
Publish a book | Publish research |
Pursue a hobby | Raise children |
Renovate your house | Retire abroad |
Save for children's education | Save for retirement |
Serve your community | Simplify your life |
Social status such as fame | Solve a problem |
Spiritual development | Start a business |
Study abroad | Support family |
Transform your way of life | Travel experiences |
Volunteering | Wealth accumulation |
Win competitions | Your children's education |
Education
Completing formal education such as a university degree.Training
Completing formal training such as leadership training.Certification
Passing a certification process such as a language or professional certification.Knowledge
Improving your knowledge. This can include self-study such as a software developer who learns an API with practice.Experience
Gaining experience. This may include personal experience such as travel or professional experience such as leading a team.Abilities
Improving a talent such as an athlete with a long term goal to reach the top of their sport.Skills
Acquiring skills such as a technical skill. For example, a project manager with a goal to learn basic coding skills in a scripting language.Language
Acquiring or improving a second language.Communication
Improving your communication skills. For example, a goal to become an accomplished public speaker.Authority
Acquiring formal authority such as a job or promotion.Social Status
Goals related to social status such as building a positive reputation in your profession.Work Quality
Work quality goals such as a designer who wants to improve their designs.Creativity
Creativity goals such as an an engineer with a goal to develop valuable patents.Entrepreneurship
Targets related to startups and small business such as restaurant owner with a goal to launch two new locations.Management
Gaining experience in management or improving your management skills. For example, a manager with a goal to improve their budget control capabilities.Project Management
Building project management skills and experience. For example, a software developer with a goal to gain experience managing complex projects.Leadership
Leadership goals such as improving the productivity of a team.Influencing
Influencing such as a software developer with a goal to get a series of budget approvals for architectural improvements.Negotiation
Negotiation targets such as a small business owner with a goal to establish a number of partnerships on favorable terms over a five year period.Relationship Building
Building and sustaining relationships such as a salesperson with a goal to build a large network of relationships in their industry.Mentoring & Coaching
Building up the talents of others with mentoring and coaching.Quality of Life
Improvements to your quality of life in areas such as lifestyle, work-life balance and connectedness to family, friends and community.Self-Fulfillment
Reaching your potential as a person. For example, a goal to show more gratitude and be more humble.Personal Resilience
Developing your resilience to stresses. For example, learning to cope with people you find difficult in a positive way.Community
Becoming more engaged with your community. For example, a goal to coach a sport in a local sports league.People & Planet
A goal to have a positive impact on people and planet such as cleaning up ocean plastic.Culture
Cultural enrichment and participation such as a goal to help organize a local traditional festival.Financial
The long term financial goals of an individual or business such as an individual with a goal to own a house or a business with a goal to reach $1 billion in revenue.Marketing
Marketing goals in areas such as branding, promotion, pricing, distribution and sales. For example, a goal to achieve top of mind brand recognition.Operations
Operations goals such as automating a production line to reduce unit cost.Customer
Customer related goals such as a hotel manager who has a target to improve service to become the highest ranked hotel in an area.Interview Question
It is a common to ask a job candidate about their long term goals in a job interview with questions such as "where do you see yourself in 5 years?" Employers may do this to gauge your interest in a job and the likelihood you will remain with the organization for many years. As such, goals stated should always relate directly to the job being offered. Employers may also be seeking to judge your ambition and career direction. A typically response seeks to appear ambitious without looking unrealistic or threatening to the person conducting the interview. If you are being interviewed by the CIO of a company, it is a bad idea to tell her you want to be CIO. The following is an example response for a junior software developer role.Within 5 years I'd like to lead development teams and contribute to software design and architecture. I'm also interested in information security and would like to specialize in this area in future.
If you are being hired for a technical role, improving your technical skills is an excellent answer as this is more closely related to the organization's apparent needs than stating you want to be a manager.Work Goals
Employees are commonly asked to document their long term goals as part of career planning or performance reviews. This is an opportunity to push for advancement in your career with achievable goals within the organization. Keep any goals you have outside the company to yourself as this is an opportunity to push for things the organization can provide such as education, training, experience and promotions. The following is an example of long term goals for an IT project manager.Complete MBA, manage programs and portfolios of projects, lead the Project Management Office (PMO).
The example above unambiguously asks for expensive education and increased responsibilities that would almost certainly be accompanied with a promotion. This is indicative of the long term goals of an employee who is considered a high performer. Low performers may be more likely to list specific ways they plan to improve to show that they are working on their performance without pushing for unrealistic promotions.Business Goals
Large businesses describe long term goals in terms of strategies, mission, vision and planning roadmaps. Small businesses may occasionally be asked for their long term goals in the context of funding requests such as an increase in a credit line. In this context, goals may focus on financial sustainability without sounding risky. Alternatively, a startup that enjoys access to risk taking investors may pitch growth and leadership of an emerging industry. The following is an illustrative long term goal for a restaurant that is requesting a loan for renovations.Improve service, decor and food items to be the top rated restaurant in the downtown area. Increase revenue to $1.7 million a year and improve margins to 38% with cost management initiatives.
Students
Students are often asked for their long term goals by school councilors for purposes such as career planning. Responses can be honest and open-ended. These may include your plans for education, work, experiences, self-study and activities.Improve my grades to get into an engineering or fine arts program at a decent university. Train to stand out as a top player on the soccer team in my final two seasons with a hope to make a university team in future. Self-study to improve my Japanese and pass the Japanese language proficiency test level 2. Plan to travel to Japan and am look into exchange programs and other educational experiences there.
Overview
Long term goals can be aspirational such that they set a direction for your life, career or business. In this case, they need not be fully achievable and can rather be big audacious goals. In other cases, you may have a specific plan to achieve a long term goal with measurements and target dates.
Summary
Long term goals generally span 2-10 years. These can include personal, family, financial, educational, business, career, community and social goals.
