Goals vs. Aspirations: What’s the Difference?

goals vs aspirations

In our recent article on how to set better goals to make you more productive, we talked a little bit about goals vs. aspirations.

Identifying your larger desires as well as your immediate next steps to get there are especially important in today’s environment where distractions lurk everywhere.

But how do we consider these two concepts of aspirations and goals. Are they the same thing, or are there meaningful differences that can help guide us on our way to accomplishment?

What’s the Difference Between an Aspiration and a Goal?

There are two main ways to approach this question: the less exciting “dictionary definition” angle, and the more interesting exploration of how it actually plays out with your own objectives and achievements.

So let’s get the first part out of the way quickly. A goal is defined as an “the end toward which effort is directed” while an aspiration is “a strong desire to achieve something high or great.”

So already we can see some difference in the two similar but distinct concepts.

Aspirations can often be more abstract in nature; a desire that is less measurable or more subjective. To give an example, your aspiration might be to become a great guitar player.

This is in contrast to a goal which are often more specific, measurable, and time-bound (which give us three of the letters of the SMART acronym). Keeping with the previous example, your goal might be to practice guitar every day for a month.

How Aspirations and Goals Lead to Our Accomplishments

Both aspirations and goals are important; we aren’t here to argue that one is better or worse than the other. But the roles they play in your life are distinct.

It’s important to have larger aspirations which speak to our deepest desires. Without them we may lack passion in our daily life and fail to hold onto enough motivation to allow us to get where we want to go.

But it’s also crucial to go from the abstract to the concrete so we can make continual progress towards clear goals that fit well with our aspirations.

To help illustrate this another way, some sources like to refer to your aspirations as your why, but your goals as your how.

Your goals and aspirations need to be aligned or else you run the risk of running into roadblocks that can tank your productivity and progress.

Now let’s look at an example (that we’ve visited before) of how this could happen.

Let’s say my goal is to write a book, but as the weeks go by I am not making much progress on the actual writing.

By doing some reflection about my goals vs. my aspirations, I may realize that my true aspiration is not necessarily to write a book, but to be accepted as an expert in my subject area.

I may have assumed that writing a book is the way to do this, but maybe giving a presentation at a national conference in my field would be a better goal that is still aligned to my aspiration.

And if I prefer presenting to slaving over my laptop trying to write, this goal shift is infinitely more likely to lead to success and accomplishment.

Because of this, it’s extremely valuable to do work in two dimensions: 1) setting goals and breaking them down to the next clear actionable step, so you always know what to do next, and 2) reflecting on those goals and how they relate to your aspirations, to make sure they remain in sync.

We hope this article has been useful for figuring out the difference between goals and aspirations and that you can apply it to your own desires and get more done. Learning about flow states and similar concepts is a great next step for turning those goals into accomplishments.

If you’re working towards a specific goal, or a broader aspiration, let us know in the comments below!

image credit

 

Did You Enjoy This Article?



andrew walsh Sign up to be notified of Andrew's latest writing here on Social Web Q and A.

Speak Your Mind

*