“Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow where they lead.” -Louisa May Alcott
It’s widely accepted that goal-oriented people are more productive, successful, and even happier. What’s less understood is that setting and keeping goals is a skill. Like any life skill, it can be developed. When building your goals-setting skillset, separating your goals into behavior-based and outcome-based is helpful. Let’s explore the differences between the two types of goals.
Outcome-Based Goals
Outcome-based goals are focused on the results achieved. For example, reducing your email response time, increasing your on-time delivery rate, and achieving third-quarter sales targets are all instances of outcome-based goals. The focus of these goals is on the outcome of your actions.
Goals in this category tend to be easier to measure. You can count the number of emails or track the sales made in a month. Because these kinds of goals are simpler to quantify, most people focus on making outcome-based goals.
Behavior-Based Goals
Behavior-based goals are focused on measuring how you act. This type of goal may include procrastinating less, being more mindful, or being less negative. This type of goal shifts your focus from an outcome to how you feel and behave.
Behavior-based goals are great companions to outcome-based goals. Because outcome goals usually require a behavior change, it makes sense to pay attention to and measure the behaviors that will help you achieve them.
To make effective behavior-based goals, it’s essential to reflect on how you complete a certain task. What actions do you need to adopt or eliminate to achieve your goals? Start small, change one behavior, and see if it gets you closer to your goal. If it does, keep doing it. If it doesn’t, try a new behavior. The more you experiment, the faster you’ll find what works best.
Bringing it all together
The key to building your goal achievement skills is practicing a combination of behavior-based goals with outcome-based goals. Commonly, you can get to the root of an issue and achieve better results by shifting your behavior and then noticing the changes in your outcomes. It may be challenging to separate the two at times, and that’s okay. Don’t forget that your performance is always a mix of both.
