Goals vs. Intentions - What's The Difference?

Posted on February 22, 2023 by Erin Shean, One of Thousands of Career Coaches on Noomii.

Recently, there has been quite a bit of talk about intentions, which prompted me to study the topic deeper in order to educate my clients on the difference between the two. They are often used interchangeably, but there is certainly a difference in setting goals and setting intentions.

Goals are imperative to getting things done. They can motivate you to complete tasks and help you to feel productive. Alternatively, the downside of goal setting, if you are not intentional about how you go about setting your goals, is that they can produce a sense of defeat or a feeling of “not enough,” which is counter to the purpose of setting goals. To understand how to carefully and intentionally set goals, you can refer back to last week’s blog, New Year, New You, Right? I have done my best to clearly outline some tips for setting goals to help you achieve success and alignment with your values.

Now, let’s jump into intentions…

Some of my clients choose to set intentions for the New Year rather than goals. It is a personal preference and is often based on where we are in life at that moment. I would explain intentions as more of a feeling and a goal as more of an objective.

Here is an example:

Before you head out on your long Sunday run, if you are setting a goal for the run, it may be to run 10 miles at 8 minute splits (or an average of 8 minutes per mile). This gives you something to work towards that will push you and give you a benchmark to determine if you have been successful on your run.

If you are heading out on your Sunday run with a mindset focused on your intentions for the run, you are likely setting an intention to take in the sights and smells on your run, enjoy the beauty around you, and/or to feel steady and strong on your run. There is no real emphasis on distance and time. If you run 8 miles or 12 miles, it doesn’t matter. If you felt good while running and enjoyed nature as you had intended, that is a win for your Sunday run.

“An intention is a guiding principle for how you want to be and how you want to act, live, and show up in this world.” – Unknown

The beauty of goals and intentions is that they are not necessarily mutually exclusive. You do not have to give up one to have the other, although if you choose to focus on one or the other, that is ok, too.

Here are the three differences between goals and intentions that I find most helpful:

Goals are clearly measured and quantifiable. Intentions are a feeling or a relationship with yourself and others.

Goals are a clear destination that has been determined. Intensions are part of the journey that are not tied to a quantifiable event.

Goals are focused on the future. Intentions are the here and now.

Hopefully you now understand the difference between goals and intentions, and you can use the information in this blog to use the two separately or in concert with one another. There are times in our lives when we may need more grace, which does not include the presence of goals. And, there are also times in our lives where we may be in a place to put both intentions and goals to work together to watch our bodies and minds accomplish some pretty amazing feats.

In pursuit of purpose,

Erin