What is the difference between a goal and a task: let’s look at examples

Author of the material:

Igor Lyadsky

Geneticist, writer, business coach, Doctor of Philosophy (PhD).

From childhood, a person hears about the need to choose the right goal. Parents, teachers, mentors, all as one, assure that a person’s success and performance depends on this. The more significant the goal, the richer and more interesting life is, the more meaning it is endowed with. But how to find the right direction? How to understand where to move? How to determine a goal that will truly motivate? And in general, is it as important as they say it is? Is its importance overestimated? Is it possible to become successful without goal setting skills? What obstacles face a person who has no goal?

What is a goal

The word “goal” often appears on the pages of psychological magazines, manuals for achieving success, and business literature. Everyone around us teaches us to be purposeful, to care for and cherish our goals, almost to pray for them. And quite justified. A goal is a very powerful lever for the personal development of an individual and evolution in general, if used skillfully.

To put it extremely simply, a goal is the future result of satisfying a current need. That is, first you realize your need, and then formulate a goal based on it.

Let's say you get to work by bus and get very tired on the road. When fatigue reaches a critical level, you need a personal car. You think it over carefully, weigh the pros and cons, evaluate your capabilities, and in the project you have a ready goal - to buy a Hyundai Solaris in the next six months.

The goal is always the end point of the path. By formulating it, we answer the question: “What do I want?”

The essence of human life energy

All human processes of life, activity, thinking and action are energy. When people are born, they receive individual internal reserves. But the future fate is different. Internally it depends on temperament, goals and meaning of life, and the external factor is society. Positive changes themselves will not come, no matter how strong the human energy of life is. They must be wanted and directed. Because negative energy has destructive purposes. The proper positive potential can achieve creation.

What is a task and how is it different from a goal?

A task, unlike a goal, does not arise directly from a need. First, a need appears, then a goal is formulated, and only then a task. By putting it before himself, a person answers the question: “What needs to be done to achieve the goal?”

In the previous paragraph, we formulated the goal - to buy a car. Now we need to find out what separates us from it. If there are no problems with money, then you can define the task as “withdraw money from the account and come to the car dealership.” If there is not enough money, then it can be formulated as “take out a loan.” Or a more humane option - “save n rubles every month”, after all, we have 6 months in stock.

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Depending on the situation, the same action can be both a goal and a task. Let's imagine that a certain man decided to go work as a taxi driver. For this purpose, he needs a personal car, and he decides to buy a Hyundai Solaris. What was a goal for us became a task for him. Therefore, it is impossible to distinguish these two concepts only by external signs. Context plays a decisive role.

Properly set tasks help achieve goals easily and quickly. Large ones are broken down into smaller ones and carried out in stages.

Benefits of SMART Goals

The SMART methodology helps improve the company’s performance in various areas. This approach helps step by step to increase profits and average checks, improve the quality of service and shopping experience, increase the number of loyal customers, improve usability and much more. Let's look at the advantages of SMART technology in setting goals and objectives:

• helps to create a clear action plan;
• contributes to the constant growth and development of the company in the market;
• suitable for different areas of business and areas of work, since it is universal and does not require special skills or
• additional financial costs;
• helps set deadlines and monitor the integrity of employees’ work;
• allows you to track the effectiveness of decisions and actions taken;
• helps to weed out irrelevant goals and avoid unnecessary expenditure of company resources;
• reduces the risk of going the wrong way.

Setting goals using the SMART model increases the likelihood of achieving the desired results. In the next section, you'll learn more about the rules you need to follow when setting your goals.

How to correctly set tasks based on goals

We discussed in detail how to set goals in a separate article - don’t be lazy and read it. Here we will highlight the main points when setting tasks.

When the goal has already been formulated, you need to analyze what you need to achieve it. These could be material resources, some knowledge and skills, human qualities, connections, etc. Actions to fill these gaps will be your current tasks.

For example, you set yourself a goal to lose 5 kg. What do you need for this? Firstly, buy a membership to a fitness club, secondly, create a diet, and thirdly, reconsider your lifestyle.

Make sure that tasks do not conflict with each other. They can be very different, but they must lead to the same result. After completing each task, be sure to check the plan and adjust it if necessary. The system must be flexible and responsive, otherwise you will constantly slip.

The task always involves some kind of action and is practical in nature. It should be as specific as possible. No vague language is allowed. That is, if you decide to adhere to a certain diet, then you must immediately create this diet and acquire the necessary products.

Some goals are achieved easily and quickly. Some people have to work hard on it. I recommend breaking large-scale and long-term goals into subgoals and achieving them step by step.

How many goals can you set?

In the table of spheres and values, we have obtained results that serve as long-term goals for us. I got several of them. And the question arises - how many goals can you set for yourself?

And here it is important to understand that you cannot take on several goals at the same time.

You need to choose one main goal and work on it every day until it is achieved. Only after this can you take a break, rejoice in your victory and take on the next goal.

This is another huge mistake when a person is overwhelmed with ideas and energy. I would like to take on all promising projects at once! But in the end, none of the endeavors achieve normal results.

You may object, because many successful businessmen have several successful projects.

Yes it is!

But all these projects are launched one by one and this is very important.

When your project becomes profitable, in most cases it no longer requires large time and financial expenditures; all that remains is to fuel it a little. And a huge amount of time is freed up, which can be used to launch other projects.

There is also one very interesting model - assigning managers to successful running projects. This move frees you up almost completely.

Examples

Let's consolidate the material with specific examples from different areas of life.

Example 1. Moving

Natasha has long dreamed of emigrating to the West. She is fluent in English, so she primarily considers English-speaking countries. And so she finally made up her mind and set a goal: “To move to live in the USA in the next 2 years.”

Tasks:

• collect all the necessary information;
• prepare documents for obtaining a visa;
• save money for the first time;
• find housing and work;
• make useful contacts, etc.

Example 2. Business expansion

Alexey is an entrepreneur. He has his own Italian plumbing store. Business is booming, and Alexey is thinking about opening branches in other cities. Having collected all the necessary information, he set a goal for himself: “Open branches in two cities within a year.”

Tasks:

• choose 2 cities and study the plumbing market in them;
• find partners to implement the project;
• develop a business plan;
• find and rent suitable premises;
• hire workers, etc.

Example 3. Repair

Sveta and Dmitry recently got married and bought an apartment with pre-finishing finishing. The primary goal for them is to make repairs in the next three months and move into their cozy nest.

Tasks:

• order a design project;
• calculate the estimate;
• purchase materials;
• hire workers.

Example 4. New profession

Artem has been working as a trainer at a fitness club for three years. He recently suffered a back injury, and now he finds work difficult. The guy decides to change his field of activity and learn to earn money through mental labor. To do this, he sets a goal: “Master the Java programming language.”

Tasks:

• choose a suitable online course;
• save money;
• think about how to combine training with current work;
• buy books on programming, etc.

Why is it needed?

Why is goal setting necessary? Without the ability to set goals, it is impossible to achieve success in life and its individual areas: work, study, love. Consistently defining goals and achieving them helps an individual move forward confidently, conquer new heights, and improve the quality and standard of living. A successful person always knows what he wants and how to achieve it.

He who does not have his own goals lives for others. He becomes driven, controlled. He gives his time and energy to other people, helping to achieve their goals. Those people who know how to set goals become leaders. They are leaders, not followers.

Let us present in the form of a table a general comparative analysis of the conscious and unconscious organization of the goal-setting process according to the main criteria:

Thus, goal setting increases the overall efficiency of life and human productivity, helps manage time and activities, develops awareness and systematic thinking. In addition, it helps to find the purpose and meaning of life, relieves fears and anxieties.

Important! In psychology, it is customary to distinguish two types (types) of goal setting: active (conscious) and passive (unconscious).

Typical mistakes when formulating goals and objectives

At the initial stage, when you are just learning how to set goals correctly, some difficulties may arise. Let's look at common mistakes so you can be prepared for them:

1. The target is too vague. I said that the goal may be less specific, but there is a limit to everything. Avoid vague formulations like “become better”, “earn more”, “travel a lot”, etc. They will not lead you anywhere.
2. The goal is too ambitious and will require a myriad of tasks to achieve. For example, you just graduated from college and are already aiming to run for president. It is better to break such a global goal into several subgoals and focus on achieving the nearest one.
3. The task duplicates the goal instead of expanding on it. That is, it does not answer the question “What needs to be done?” and doesn't help you move forward.
4. The task contradicts the goal. For example, the goal is to save money for a car, and the task is to buy a new phone. In this case, they pull in different directions.

Try to avoid these mistakes and approach the goal-setting process very responsibly. Spare no effort and time to develop your goals, and all your expenses will be more than repaid.

Examples of SMART goals

Let's take some fictitious situations and try to apply SMART criteria to them.

Example 1

An educational company wants to increase sales of its online course. At this stage, it is possible to attract approximately two hundred potential buyers per month, of which 50 people are converted into clients. That is, the conversion rate is 25%. We create a goal using the SMART method.

• S - increase the conversion rate.
• M - double the conversion rate.
• A - to increase the conversion rate, the company has the necessary resources; it will need to improve the sales funnel and supplement email newsletters with a chat bot in Telegram, since this messenger is the most preferred channel of communication with the company.
• R - increasing the conversion rate will help increase the company's profits and strengthen its position in the market due to positive feedback.
• T - the company is able to quickly make the necessary changes to its marketing plan to increase conversion and get the desired result at the end of the month.

Let's fully formulate our SMART goal: “Double your conversion rate this month.”

Example 2

Let's say the pet store Buddy has developed a sales funnel using a lead magnet on the website, email newsletters and a chat bot in Telegram. As a result, the company was faced with a distortion of statistics because it could not identify the emails of users in Telegram, which led to duplication of data. To correct this situation, it was decided to implement a CRM system. Let's look at how to set this goal SMART.

• S - implement a CRM system.
• M — enter N clients into the CRM system and identify them in different communication channels.
• A - There are CRM systems for small and medium businesses on the market that have free and low-cost paid plans, so implementing this tool will not require significant costs. Moreover, some are SaaS services and do not require special skills or special capabilities for implementation.
• R - achieving the goal will help improve communication with clients, obtain more realistic statistics and improve the marketing strategy based on it.
• T - the CRM systems in question have a simple interface, so lengthy courses are not required for implementation; just watch the training webinar. It will take no more than a week to enter all the data and set up the CRM.

Now, let’s formulate a SMART goal: “In a week, implement a CRM system to identify N number of email users in Telegram.”

Example 3

Information businessman Roman sells his course to about 100 users every month. Within a year, 1,200 people became his clients. After analyzing sales and assessing the effectiveness of marketing channels to attract the target audience, Roman realized that it was possible to increase the monthly number of sales by 50%. Let's use the SMART method.

• S - increase the number of new customers.
• M - increase the number of new customers to 1800.
• A - the goal can be achieved by increasing the budget for the use of the most relevant advertising communication channels and eliminating the least effective ones.
• R - an increase in the number of new customers will increase profits, recognition, accelerate the growth of the customer base and strengthen position in the market.
• T - one year.

We formulate our goal: “Attract 1,800 new customers during 2021.”

Setting goals using the SMART method allows you to establish where you need to go, how to do it, and what you need to do it. This approach is a guarantee of achieving results. Use the SMART method to set work, everyday and strategic goals and you will never mark time.