Comments on: End Goals vs. Means Goals

By: Apurva Jain

Apurva Jain — Tue, 06 Sep 2005 20:41:17 +0000

Too good.I feel liberated,you have shed all my doubts and now i know there are lot of ways to achieve end goals.

God you sre great,awesome.

Keep writing

By: Rodger

Rodger — Wed, 24 Aug 2005 21:05:44 +0000

I completely agree with your distinction between end and means goals. It is a valuable insight that can save you a lot of frustration if you are going down the wrong “means” path.

In my goal setting software, I ended up creating separate concepts for dreams (”end” goals) and goals (”means” goals) because I think the planning and questions you need to ask yourself are different for each of them. Same idea, just slightly different terminology.

I’ve also found that within the means goals, you can distinguish between outcome-oriented goals like reaching a target weight in 6 months, and behavior-oriented goals that support them. Things like exercising 3 times per week, or limiting your portions while eating out. I think it is easier to stay motivated with the supporting goals when you can link them to a higher purpose.

By: yow chuan

yow chuan — Wed, 24 Aug 2005 09:41:22 +0000

Bruce Lee puts it this way: “It is not necessary to really achieve your goal, as a goal is merely something to help you aim/focus your effort.”

By: Hans

Hans — Tue, 23 Aug 2005 20:32:32 +0000

I found it interesting that you speparated “end” from “means” and referenced S.M.A.R.T., yet did not differentiate with the labels Goal and Objective.

In planning and project management terms, a Goal is the end-state description and Objectives (in SMART format) are the means to move toward the Goal.

You might find the planning practice Hoshin-Kanri appealing. Hoshin teaches how to create and “deploy” objectives to accomplish a goal. It’s a little like a Gantt type project plan, but rotated to form a tree of Objectives cascading from a Goal.

While Hoshin is normally used for business plans, I’ve experimented to adapt it to personal planning. I started with the planning model of EDS, the consulting firm, and looked for parallels to their focus on ‘benefit the customer’, ‘improve the business’ and ‘develop the staff’.

My personal Hoshin has three questions at its “root” – what will I do for the benefit of others?, what will I do to improve ‘operations’ within my family?, what will I do to evolve myself? (I’m working on this as a background task.)

From following your Blog, hear your emphasis on personal evolution. You might think about formalizing goals for the other two domains. Perhaps you have already them, but haven’t applied this framework to separate them for visibility and to help manage life-balance.

Info on Hoshin can be found on a web-site operated by Pete Babich, the CEO of Total Quality Engineering – http://www.tqe.com. Pete publishes the “Hoshin Handbook” which describes in very simple procedures how to conduct Hoshin style planning.

A more thorough tutorial of Hoshin planning is available in a book by Cowley and Domb: “Beyond Strategic Vision – Effective Corporate Action with Hoshin Planning” (1997). This is available at the online bookstore of amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0750698438/qid=1123474188/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_ur_2_1/104-6508993-1987911
for approx. $18.00

By: Cpu_Modern

Cpu_Modern — Tue, 23 Aug 2005 17:30:29 +0000

Decent necessery article; bravo. Reality is even worse than that. You may take a look at what people publish on sites like http://www.43things.com/ – it is some sort of social goals-list management thing. Most people don’t even seem to understand that you have to set sepecific goals. In my experience people do confuse a goal and the actions requred to meet the goal as well. The whole thing seems to be pretty complicated (for non-programmers(?)).

By: Steve Pavlina

Steve Pavlina — Tue, 23 Aug 2005 14:31:22 +0000

I added an extra clarification paragraph to the end of the original goals to help provide a better understanding of end goals in the context of a system like S.M.A.R.T.

By: Sukotto

Sukotto — Tue, 23 Aug 2005 13:33:10 +0000

Off topic:
Speaking of goals. I hope sometime you’ll write an article talking about handling goals that you cannot easily measure.

You (and others) say to make your goals specific and measurable. How do you measure goals like “being a man of honesty”? Sure can can change the wording to “never tell an untruth” but then you run into the “ugly bride/baby” problem.

Or the goal of “being a good father” (one of mine). How do you measure something like that?

By: J Wynia

J Wynia — Tue, 23 Aug 2005 13:03:00 +0000

Fantastic explanation. I’m always telling people to quit coming to me with a “half solution” and bring me a “problem” instead. What I’ve been getting at is the same thing, but your distinction is clearer. I’m frustrated when someone wants help with their means goal because often the means they’ve chosen are exactly what’s getting in their way. Usually, when I can get to the root goal/problem, a much better path is available.

By: Anton

Anton — Tue, 23 Aug 2005 11:06:35 +0000

Steve -

Great and deceptively simple re-framing tool! I’ve actually been misinterpreting a couple of past (major) business failures (read, “crash and burn”) which, when reframed as “means goals” under your coaching in this article, not ends goals, I now suddenly realize very clearly that those businesses actually weren’t failures — they were just means that didn’t arrive at where I’m headed as my ends goal(S)

Now I see that those experiences increased my credentials, skills and competence exponentially (i.e., now, along with my other skills, I am qualified as an adviser in renewal of distressed small businesses, bankruptcies, winding up small businesses, etc.).

There is no school that could teach what I’ve learned and can now comfortably share, so long as I don’t mistake it as a missed ends goal.

Thanks again Steve – I can’t tell you how greatful I am for this coaching you provide and I’m just blown away at what I am getting in the short time since I accidentally ran across your site —
You Rule! Anton