The Difference Between a Goal and a Project

What’s the difference between a project and a goal? That’s the question I am addressing this week.

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Episode 208 | Script

Hello and welcome to episode 208 of the Working With Podcast. A podcast to answer all your questions about productivity, time management, self-development and goal planning. My name is Carl Pullein and I am your host for this show.

With the introduction of my GAPRA notes organisation system—GAPRA stands for Goals, Areas Of Focus, Projects, Resources and Archive—I’ve received a number of questions about the difference between a project and a goal and on the surface there is little difference. Both have a desired outcome, a deadline and a set of actions that need to be performed before the outcome is achieved. 

However, there are a few subtle differences that I will explain this week as well as explaining why I began organising my notes using GAPRA. 

Now, before we get to this week’s answer, just a heads up to let you know if you are enrolled in my Apple Productivity course, you now have the 2022 update ready and waiting for you. It’s a free update and this year, it has extra lessons on GAPRA and how to build that into Apple Notes. 

If you are not already enrolled in the course, you can still do so at the early bird discount price of $49.99 for just 12 more hours. The early bird discount will be ending at midnight today (22 November) 

Okay, on with the show and that means it’s time for me to hand you over to the Mystery Podcast Voice for this week’s question.

This week’s question comes from Johnny. Johnny asks: HI Carl, I’m struggling to understand the difference between a goal and a project. Could you explain how you distinguish between the two? 

Great question, Johnny and thank you for sending it in.

Okay, let’s start off with the similarities. Projects and goals share a lot in common. There’s a desired outcome. For instance you may have a project to redecorate your bedroom and a goal to lose 10 pounds in weight. You will also have a deadline date for both of these. So in this example, you may have a deadline to complete the redecoration of your bedroom by the 24th December and to lose ten pounds by the end of the year. 

So far, very similar. 

However, where they differ is in what happens once you have completed these. Once your bedroom is decorated, you have completed the project. It’s over. There is nothing else for you to do except to enjoy the freshly painted room. 

With your goal of losing weight, the next step is to keep those ten pounds off. That means you need to change the way you eat and move. There’s no point in losing those ten pounds only to put them back on again right? 

Goals are about changing you as a person for the better. They are about improving yourself and moving towards a higher purpose. 

How did you feel when you last successfully achieved a goal? Happy? Ecstatic? How long did you feel like that? A few days? A few hours? Minutes?

You see the problem with achieving a goal is the satisfaction that comes from achieving goals is short-lived. All goals by their very nature are just one step towards a higher purpose. For instance losing that weight, is about becoming healthier. If you lose those ten pounds and within a few weeks regain the ten pounds, then you completed a project. You did not complete a goal. A goal would be to keep those ten pounds off or go further and lose another ten pounds. 

Let me give you another example. Each year I set my company an income goal. This is a goal because the purpose here is to establish a new standard. The underlying goal is to continue to grow and improve my company. So, ultimately, the goal of the company is for constant and never-ending growth. However, each year I need to set a new goal to accomplish to achieve that. 

By pushing the goal further each year, the company grows, I get to help more people while at the same time I improve as a teacher—after all, for my company to grow I have to also improve as a teacher. For me to help more people become better organised and more productive, I also have to improve my skills. 

I remember watching a Jim Rohn seminar on YouTube a few years ago and he said you should set the goal to become a millionaire, not for the money, but for who you have to become to achieve that goal. 

To become a millionaire, you will have to change your mindset and your habits. Most people limit themselves because they believe their income is set by the company they work for. And in the past, if you chose to be an employee, that was likely to be true. The only way for anyone to become a millionaire twenty years ago was to start your own business. Today, that is not true. We have unlimited opportunities to build side-incomes. Creating online courses, or a YouTube channel. Even writing blog posts now can earn you income through sites like Medium. 

But, to do that, you will need to break free of your 9 til 5 mindset. You will need to change your thinking from consuming entertainment to consuming education. Learning, growing and being obsessed with generating income. That’s how you become a millionaire. You will learn that if you spend all evening going out with your friends or watching Netflix, you will not change anything. You will stay stuck where you are. 

If you spend your evenings on your side project—write, produce videos, sell products through Amazon or Ebay, then you put yourself in a position where becoming a millionaire becomes possible. 

I remember back when I was in my early 20s I worked in our local pub as a bar tender. One of the regulars was a gentleman called Albert. Albert had been a millionaire three times and lost it three times. I remember talking with Albert one quiet Monday evening and he told me making the first million is the hardest thing you will ever do. But once to have achieved your first million, earning a million a year is easy. 

I didn’t understand what he meant back then, but over the years, I’ve realised that once you know the mindset and develop the skills to earn your first million, if you ever lose it, you don’t need to worry. You know what it takes to become a millionaire and you can repeat the process over and over again. 

The key to understanding goals is to know that the goal is less important that the changes you have to make in order to achieve that goal. 

A project is static, it does not move. Once you complete the project it’s over. You archive the project and move on to the next project. A goal is fluid, it moves with you. As you improve your abilities, develop new skills, strengthen weak areas you, as an individual, are improving. When you complete the goal, the question becomes what next? How can you continue to grow and improve? 

And that leads me nicely onto why I developed GAPRA. All GAPRA is is a way for me to organise my notes by importance. I want my goals at the top because they are the drivers of my continuous improvement. If I am in any doubt about what I should be working on today, I know my priorities will always be with my goals. 

Then comes your areas of focus. The eight areas of life we need to keep in balance. These are your family and relationships, your health, your finances, personal development, career or business, spirituality, lifestyle and life experiences and your life’s purpose. These are all important to us but their importance changes depending on where we are in life. 

Then your projects. For most working people, our projects are likely to come from our work. But as we move through life, become home owners, parents and take on more responsibilities we will be adding more and more personal projects. 

Then we have resources, this is where we keep important information. I keep things like where I buy my clothes from and my sizes. I have a note called my “Anchor Note” where I keep important links and other useful information. 

And finally we have the archive where old project notes and other stuff I have finished with but are not ready to delete yet go.

When you organise your notes in this way, you have everything organised by importance. In the past, I’ve found I’ve ignored my goals because often my work projects take up a lot of time. But if I want to grow as a person, become better at what I do and feel fulfilled, I know I will only find that in my goals. So, when I open my notes app in a morning at the top of the folder list is my goals folder, I am reminded every day of what is really important. 

It also makes doing my weekly planning session easier. I start at the top and work my way down to projects. So, I can ask myself what I can do to move closer to my goals first, then check my areas of focus are in balance and finally make sure I have sufficient time each week for keeping my projects moving along. 

If you want to learn more about why the goal itself is the least important part of the goal planning process, I recommend you listen to my interview with Damon Cart. Damon did a fantastic job explaining that our goals are a vehicle to attaining what we really want. For instance, when someone tells you they want to earn a lot of money, earning the money might be something measurable, but really what people want is the thing that they think money will give them. A nice car? And nice home? Well, again, it’s not really the car or the home they want, it’s the feeling they think a nice car or a nice home will give them. That’s the ultimate goal. 

Now the problem with material things is they never bring you the feeling you think they will. Nice houses and cars don’t impress people as much as you may think. But if the goal is to put yourself in a position of financial security so you have the freedom to do the things you want to do, you are setting the right kind of goals. 

So there you go, Johnny. I hope that answers your question. The reality is goals and projects are very similar. The difference is that once a project is complete it’s done. Finished. A goal, on the other hand, is about changing and improving you as a person. It’s just a step towards a much higher purpose. 

Thank you for your question and thank you to you too for listening. It just remains for me now to wish you all a very very productive week.