Why It's Important to Know the Difference Between Targets and Goals

Targets are Destinations, Goals are Journeys

Many years ago, I joined a leadership development group that promised to skyrocket our success. At the very first session, all the participants created a poster listing their top three goals.

The idea is that we would put a bar chart next to each. Each week, as we made progress toward our goals, we would color in more and more of the bar. Eventually, the bar would be completely filled in. We’d have reached our goal!

That’s not how it worked.

Week after week, I showed up to the session. I’d worked hard on my goals all week. But I could not color in one bit more of the bar. Meanwhile, my classmates’ bar charts were shooting up like skyscrapers.

I felt like giving up. What was wrong with me?

Targets, not goals

There was nothing wrong with me. The problem was with my goals.

For example, my first goal was to buy a new car (a blue mini-SUV) during the 3-month program. It was a stretch, since I had been out of work for a number of years. But my sense of self-reliance and independence required me to have my own transportation. So, I made it a goal.

Do you see the problem with that as a goal?

It’s specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely. It’s everything we’ve been told a SMART goal should be. There’s just one problem with it.

Have you ever gone out and purchased half of a car? Or a quarter of a car?

This was not a goal. It was a target.

At a specific moment in time, the target was achieved. One second before that, no matter how much work I’d put in to reaching that target, I was no closer to achieving it than when I started.

There was an ancient Greek philosopher named Zeno. He proposed a number of thought experiments. One of his most famous was about an arrow.

When you shoot an arrow at a target, before it reaches the target, the arrow must travel half-way to the target. Right?

But before it can travel half-way, it must travel a quarter of the way. And so on, and so on, each time needing to go half the distance before it can go the full distance.

Since the distance to travel can be divided in half an infinite number of times, there will always be an infinitely smaller amount that needs to be traveled first, before the arrow can get where it’s going. So, Zeno wondered, how can the arrow ever reach the target?

If you’re like most of the kids in my math class where I first heard about this, you’ll struggle with the paradox for a bit, then angrily declare, “It just does!”

But that’s why targets make for terrible goals.

Your actions are like the infinitely divisible amounts. No matter how many actions you take, you can always take more. And at some point, if you reach the target, it’s because you “just do”.

But right up until that point, you “just didn’t.”

Targets are bad goals, because there’s a disconnect between your actions and reaching the target. So, to make a good goal, you need a tight connection between your actions and the goal you want to reach.

For example, let’s use my earlier example of buying a blue mini-SUV. That’s my target. I can even have sub-targets, things like selecting the model, locating a dealership, going for a test-drive.

How do I know these are targets, and not goals? Simple. Can you select half of a model? Locate half of a dealership? Go for half of a test-drive? (You could be half-way through a test-drive, but if you stopped then, it would be a complete test-drive. Like digging half a hole.)

The goals would be things like research the 10 highest rated mini-SUVs according to Consumer Reports. Research the customer approval and quality ratings of the 4 closest dealerships. Schedule a test drive of the 3 candidate vehicles.

You can do half the research. You can schedule 1/3 or 2/3 of the test drives. These goals are things where you can count the total number of actions that need to be done. And you can move closer to the total number by discreet intervals.

I’ve been talking about goals, which are actions that you take and measure. You can get part-way to your goals. And I’ve been talking about targets, which are destinations that you either reach or don’t.

But how do goals relate to targets?

Basically, targets are the things you want to achieve. Goals are the things you do that you think will achieve that thing.

For example, a salesperson might have a target of making 50 sales, and a goal of doing 100 sales calls. The salesperson thinks they’ll close 50% of their sales calls. If they do 20 sales calls and only make 2 sales, their closing rate is 10%. Their current goal will only get them 10 sales.

Something needs to change.

They can either change the goal (make 530 more sales calls) or change the target by adding a subtarget (get better at selling so their closing rate goes up). Or better yet, do both. Schedule the 530 sales calls, while also having goals (reading books, taking training, rewriting their sales script, etc.) designed to reach the subtarget of closing more sales. Then, when you reach the initial target, you can stop making sales calls.

How to set good targets and goals

Start your goal-setting the way you normally do.

1. Create your “starter list” of potential goals.

2. For each potential goal on the starter list, ask, “Can I do half of this?” If you can’t, it’s probably a target. Otherwise, it’s a goal.

3. Divide the starter list into two lists, one of goals and one of targets.

4. For each goal on your goals list, figure out the actual target that you’re hoping that goal will help you achieve. It may already be on your target list, or it may be a new target.

5. For each target on your targets list, match it to one or more goals on the goals list that you think will help you to achieve that target. If there are no matching goals on the goals list, add one or more.

6. Take a last pass of both lists, confirming that goals are all measurable actions, and targets are all achievements you will or will not reach.

7. Schedule a time to regularly adjust your goals based on whether or not you are reaching your targets.

Go out, take the actions on your goals list, and reach your targets!

Top 3 Blocks Dissolved This Week

1. Suffering & perfection - read the case study

2. Unreliable partners - removed “you are on your own” 

3. Getting bad breaks - removed “the world is not fair”

The first block was one that we’d been nibbling away at for many sessions. The client was finally ready to release it. This illustrates the difference between a mental block caused by a single traumatic event (where “traumatic” just means you were unable to handle it at the age and mental maturity you were at when it occurred), and a mental block that has been built and reinforced over and over again over the course of your life.

Bo Bennett is a social psychologist, author, and successful entrepreneur. He knows a thing or two about setting goals and achieving dreams.

The key point of his quote, as far as I’m concerned, is the focus on action. He clearly defines a goal as being connected to action. A target, as I’ve used the term, without action is just a dream. You might reach it. You probably won’t. But a goal requires action taken toward its achievement.

To your goals, targets, and dreams!

Jennifer Dunne, Caribbean Compassion Coaching