Short vs Long Term

Focusing on short-term goals is what we often do. The goals are quarterly based, so why should we not pay special attention to them? That seems natural, but can only work if we have both short and long-term goals in our planning scope. Ideally, short term should reflect the long term. This is not always easy or achievable in practice – my goals are to achieve certain numbers now, not in the future. Sometimes we need to “lose” now (like invest) in order to win in the future. And we rarely want to lose, especially that our salary depends on the ‘win’-targets. Is there a golden middle for this? In projects we need to address short term goals (like in sprints), but in the longer run, all must form a picture we want to see or sell. The minimum is to ensure the short term is not blocking the long term.