The Difference Between Goals and Purpose

“Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.”

Goals are destinations. Purpose is the direction you travel.

A goal is something you achieve and then replace with another goal. It is finite, measurable, completable. Purpose is none of these things. It is the underlying orientation that gives your goals their meaning.

You can achieve every goal you set and still feel purposeless, if the goals were not aligned with anything deeper. And you can fail to achieve many of your goals and still feel purposeful, if the trying was in service of something that genuinely matters to you.

The question is not: what do I want to achieve? The question is: what am I oriented toward? What is the direction my life is pointing, and does that direction feel true?

Related Reflections

Themes that often travel alongside purpose.