Difference Between Life Goal & Life Purpose

by nbaron
9 replies
Most people might get confused with this statement - what exactly is the difference between goals and life purpose!

But when you think about it for a minute, you will realize there is a vast difference between life goal and life purpose. Though it is quite confusing to some of us, when we think about it seriously, and look in your heart, you will feel that the difference is crystal clear. Let's have a look at what exactly these both concepts stand for and how they are different from each other.

Life Goal

Life goal is something that can be called as the basic needs of human life. To stay alive there are certain basic needs that have to be fulfilled. To fulfill these basic needs we organize our days, months, years and sometimes a whole of our life. What are these basic needs? Food, shelter, and clothing are our three basic needs. To acquire these amenities we work hard and select our work or professions influenced by our social, economic and cultural background. This is where our goal of life lies. Our basic goal of life is earning a livelihood and maintaining a lifestyle suiting our background and culture.

Believe it or not, most of the time we are so involved in fulfilling our requirements that we are not left with any time or need to think anything else than earning bread and butter. Oblivious of this fact that human life has much more to do and give than simply taking birth, surviving and dying aimlessly. And this happens most of the time for a majority of people. They are so entangled with their basic needs that their life has no other motive than that of staying alive.

Life Purpose

But human life is so precious and unique, that wasting it just for the purpose of 'staying alive', is quite ridiculous. We need to raise our standards from just meeting our basic needs or things, and do something that pleases us internally. This is something we don't do for earning money or getting names and fame, but for the sake of our own pleasure, enjoyment or even bliss. This thought process leads us towards our life purpose.

Have you ever thought why most of the known scientists, celebrities, world famous doctors, leaders belong to developed countries? Why would that be? It doesn't necessarily mean that under developed or developing countries did not create such prodigies at all but the ratio cannot compete with the developed countries. Why is that so? It is because they have acquired all the life needs that can be termed as basic needs. They could spare time and resources to pursue their passions or purpose of life. They wanted to do something unique and different that they can enjoy and have driven passion for it. That's where they carve their purpose of life.

Life Goal and Life Purpose

So we can say that life goal and life purpose are altogether two different aspects and processes to lead a life. When we live only for the sake of living and staying alive we are bound to pursue our life goal. But when we get out of this realm of such petty requisites and think of something different and more fruitful only then we aim towards our life purpose. It's now, entirely your own decision if you wish to pursue your life goal or your life purpose. No doubt without pursuing life goal thinking of life purpose is baseless. You need to bring your life to such a pedestal where you are free from all thoughts of primary needs then you can move towards your life purpose. You must not forget the difference between goal and life purpose while pursuing your purpose of life.

To claim your free e-course on Life Purpose, I encourage you to visit the site to my newly released ebook on the topic, and take advantage of this free limited offer : http://www.find-your-purpose-now.com/

I'll look forward to your comments and sincerely hope the e-course will bring value to you and your life.

Make it an outstanding day!

Find Your Purpose and Live it with Passion!

Nicolas Baron

www.nicolasbaron.com
#difference #goal #life #life goal #life purpose #money #motivation #purpose #success
  • Profile picture of the author David McKee
    Excellent Post nbaron! I believe we all need to have a life purpose statement - an elevator pitch if you will to yourself. one or at most two sentences that state in a compact way your ultimate purpose for living. It may not mean anything to someone else, but must be of the utmost purpose for yourself. In addition to that you can then add "life affirming statements that remind you and help you activate you own inner desire to continue to pursue that ultimate purpose even when you don't feel like it.

    I have been working on a piece of software for the last year and a half called "Achieve-Master" that is based on just that concept and then helps people create a set of achievements, milestones, goals, and finally tasks - and shows them how to prioritize them for maximum potential - so that they can live that ultimate purpose. It also captures ideas and allows the linkage of those ideas to any type of media (images, videos, documents, web-sites, etc).

    At any rate, it is good to see others who are trying to promote this point of view - God knows we need more of it!

    DTM
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  • Profile picture of the author Steadyon
    I understand what you are trying to say, but you need to look at the definitions of the words.

    A poor dictionary will describe a goal as some kind of purpose and also descibe a purpose as some kind of goal etc...

    Going round in circles.

    Once you hunt through enough different dictionaries (they are not all the same!) you begin to see that there is a difference in the English language.

    A GOAL is senior and more important than a PURPOSE.

    Think of it in terms of the GOAL being the overall objective being undertaken. It can be any goal.

    The purpose is more like the route you take to achieve the goal, or the reason for doing something.

    Example:


    GOAL - I want to help people achieve good health and wellbeing.

    PURPOSE - I will train as a nutritionist and advise people about their diets.


    It's like the purpose fits in and ligns with the goal and is not quite as senior. In other words, for the same goal above, "to help people achieve good health and wellbeing", a person could decide to become a doctor and that was their purpose in life, but it contributed to their overall goal of helping people achieve good health.

    In simple terms, there is usually a number of different possible purposes as a way to reach a goal.

    Your example of life goal confuses the issue as people can have greater goals than just food, shelter and clothing.

    Yes, goals and purposes often get mixed up and this is an unfortunate byproduct of people not really knowing with enough clarity what the words mean.

    Steadyon the Scholar
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  • Profile picture of the author David McKee
    I have to disagree with the idea of goals being senior to purpose - I see it the other way around. A goal, like a goal in a game, is something you work towards again and again - always advancing yourself towards the final outcome. The purpose of getting goals in a game is to win the game.

    Purpose is the senior, in fact I would place the hierarchy (and do) thus:

    Life Purpose
    Achievement
    Milestone
    Goal
    Task

    And then there is the ancillary objects "ideas" which sort of float around until we grab them and make them part of, or one of the objects in the hierarchy. Most of our ideas never get captured at all, some do and become things we desire to pursue.

    -DTM.
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    • Profile picture of the author TelegramSam
      Originally Posted by David McKee View Post

      I have to disagree with the idea of goals being senior to purpose - I see it the other way around. A goal, like a goal in a game, is something you work towards again and again - always advancing yourself towards the final outcome. The purpose of getting goals in a game is to win the game.

      Purpose is the senior, in fact I would place the hierarchy (and do) thus:

      Life Purpose
      Achievement
      Milestone
      Goal
      Task

      And then there is the ancillary objects "ideas" which sort of float around until we grab them and make them part of, or one of the objects in the hierarchy. Most of our ideas never get captured at all, some do and become things we desire to pursue.

      -DTM.

      That's fine.

      But in fact you are incorrect.

      You are confusing purpose and life purpose.

      You are confusing goal with life goal.

      Think in terms of what your life goal is. Then the life purpose is your way of achieving your life goal.

      Your analogy of using goal posts in football etc confuses the issue.
      The GOAL of the game is to beat the opposition and the PURPOSE of playing is to score more points (goals - different definition) than the opposition.

      The overall GOAL for the season is to win the league or avoid relegation etc.
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    • Profile picture of the author A8ch
      In everyday language the words "goal" and "purpose" are used interchangeably, without any confusion. But in this thread, in order to grasp the point of the original post, the subtle distinctions of meaning must be taken into account.

      I consider life purpose to be a broad objective, often with dynamic parameters and no finite point in time. Your goals can move you closer to it, but the very nature of purpose ensures that it will always be just outside your reach.

      Life purpose is an incessant quest, like trying to reach the horizon.

      Originally Posted by David McKee View Post

      A goal, like a goal in a game, is something you work towards again and again - always advancing yourself towards the final outcome. The purpose of getting goals in a game is to win the game.

      -DTM.
      David's example is crystal clear to me, and makes the point with simple elegance.

      The overall purpose of the game is to win. And to accomplish that means scoring a series of goals, at least one more than the opponent. So in a strict sense, one could say that a purpose is comprised of several goals, and not the other way around.

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  • Profile picture of the author Jack Chua
    For me life goal is more on the obligation or responsibilities that we have to do while life purpose is our mission in life.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jollowen
    Life goal must have a date when to start it & also when to achieve it, w/ action of course, if you want to achieve it .

    Life purpose you'll do it for the rest of your life because that's your calling inside your heart & people who listen to their purpose in life are the one who live a fullfilled life, as we call magnificent life..happy life.
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    Divinely inspired created with love. The purpose is to remind you everyday to wake up with a winners mindset.
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  • Profile picture of the author Steadyon
    I beg to differ.

    Look in enough dictionaries and you will see that goal is senior to purpose.

    People confuse it because you often see purpose used with the word life. ie life purpose.

    Answer this questions then:

    1) What is your goal in life?

    2) What is your purpose in your?


    The answer 1) might be to help people be healthy.

    The answer 2) might be to become a doctor.

    So 2) contributes to 1).


    Anyway, only trying to help.
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    • Profile picture of the author David McKee
      Originally Posted by Steadyon View Post

      I beg to differ.

      Look in enough dictionaries and you will see that goal is senior to purpose.

      People confuse it because you often see purpose used with the word life. ie life purpose.
      Therein lies the difficulty...look in enough dictionaries and you can define anything any way you want. The problem is that the meanings of words change over time, and while once upon a time "goal" might have been a senior term to "purpose", I don't believe in modern parlance it is.

      For example, if someone were to ask you: "What is the purpose of your watch?" You would answer: "To tell me the time". If they were to then ask "What is the goal of your watch?" You would look at them funny and say:"Um... It's a watch, it does not have goals."

      So goals are set by conscious minds intent on achieving some specific outcome. Those goals may be stacked together until a larger outcome is finally achieved. In that sense then, they are indeed "goal posts" that mark a place in the future where you are trying to get to., with your purpose to achieve ever larger and greater things.

      Now it may be that the original use of the word goal was once more "over-arching" than it is used now, but so are many words, and regardless of weather you think that is a good or bad thing, it is what it is. People in general, I believe, think of goals as markers along the way towards their ultimate achievements, and their purpose as attempting to get to that ultimate achievement. Because the purpose never really goes away, but goals are achieved and then are history, I believe most would put purpose as the "senior" idea to goal.

      But hey, if it works for you to put it the other way around, then go for it!

      -DTM
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