The Difference Between Goals and Hopes

By Trisha Bartle Tuesday May 12, 2009

Have you made a list of goals recently? Good!

Before you start going through the list, ticking off things you’ve achieved, you should make sure there aren’t any hopes on that list.

I see it all the time. I ask someone what kind of life goals they have and they say things like, ‘have 10 children’ or ‘go to Harvard’, These are hopes, and not goals.

So, what’s the difference between hopes and goals?

Goals are things that you can achieve solely by your own actions. For instance, ‘lose 10 pounds’ is entirely based on what you eat and how much exercise you get. There’s very little chance of an outside influence preventing you from achieving that goal (short of death or broken legs).

Hopes are things that you want, but that you don’t have total control over. For instance, having 10 kids has factors like fertility. What if you can’t have that many kids? What if your body will only let you have 2? And going to Harvard? If you’re already a teen or adult when you’ve realized this hope, it may be too late. That school is notoriously hard to get into.

The difference between hopes and goals, is all about what you can do. If you can achieve that thing all by your own action, it’s a goal. If there are outside factors that matter in getting what you want, it’s a hope.

But aren’t hopes okay?

Sure! Have as many hopes as you want! I hope to be a millionaire and live on a cruise liner touring the world.

Life would be pretty sad without hopes.

There is one place that there shouldn’t be hopes: your goal list. Let’s say you’re taking the 101 Things in 1001 Days challenge. If you added hopes to your list, there’s a very real chance that they won’t be achieved in 1001 days. And it likely won’t be your fault.

Only put concrete, achievable goals on your list. This way, you have a higher chance of success.

You can always make a separate list for hopes!