Jim Wendler wrote a simple piece about goal setting.

Jim hit on the right thing: to have a larger goal, but then you have to break the goal down into smaller chunks. I like to say that you have your goal, but then you have milestones along the way. And you can have various levels of milestones. Maybe your goal will take a year to accomplish, so maybe you can break it down into monthly milestones, and even further into weekly and daily milestones. It’s things to help you measure progress, accomplish the goal, and have success along the way because that will provide motivation as you see yourself progressing towards meeting your goal.

Jim alluded to but didn’t really talk about one vital part to goal setting:

Deadlines.

To set a goal is one thing, but it means nothing if there isn’t a time component to it. “I want to be rich”… yeah, don’t we all? “In 10 years I want to have one million dollars” is a bit more tangible, and gives you a more concrete idea and direction as to where to go and what you’ll need to do to get there. Compare that to “in 20 years” or “in 5 years” or in “1 year” and think about how that time component will change what the plan of “making a million dollars” will have to be.

Set goals. They’re good for you. Make sure you set a time component, then break down the goal into milestones over time.

Then bust your hump to achieve them.