Intentions vs Goals and How To Combine Them for a Winning Strategy
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Description
Setting a big, exciting goal can feel amazing at the start—the motivation is high, and the journey feels full of possibility. But what happens when the excitement fades or the path gets bumpy? That’s when the power of intention can make all the difference.
In this episode of Branding Room Only, I’m diving into the difference between intentions and goals and how combining the two can create a winning strategy. We’ll explore why intentions are key to building a personal brand that feels authentic and sustainable—and how they can keep you grounded and moving forward, even when you don’t hit the mark.
Chapters
1:15 - How feedback serves as a growth catalyst and preventative measure against petty branding behavior
3:43 - The realignment process I went through for my brand after a trusted colleague gave me feedback about my behavior
9:07 - Tips to help you incorporate feedback as a regular practice and the importance of self-awareness and accountability
Mentioned In Petty Branding: Navigating Ego and Embracing Constructive Feedback
Petty Branding: What It Is and How It Impacts Your Leadership
Petty Branding: Lessons from a Leadership Misstep
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Sponsor for this episode
This episode is brought to you by PGE Consulting Group LLC.
PGE Consulting Group LLC is dedicated to providing a practical hybrid of professional development training and diversity solutions. From speaking to consulting to programming and more, all services and resources are carefully tailored for each partner. Paula Edgar’s distinct expertise helps engage attendees and create lasting change for her clients.
To learn more about Paula and her services, go to www.paulaedgar.com or contact her at info@paulaedgar.com, and follow Paula Edgar and the PGE Consulting Group LLC on LinkedIn.
Transcript
Welcome to The Branding Room Only Podcast where we share career stories, strategies, and lessons learned on how industry leaders and influencers have built their personal brands. Now, let's get started with the show.
Hi everyone and welcome back to Branding Room Only. I'm your host, Paula Edgar. Today, we're diving into a topic that's both inspiring and practical, intentions versus goals. If you've ever set a goal that felt monumental, whether it was about advancing your career, building your brand, or even making a personal change, you know how exciting it can be.
But you also know that sometimes, no matter how much effort you put in, things don't always go as planned. Here's the truth. While goals are important, it's often your intentions that give you the courage to keep going, the clarity to make the right choices, and the encouragement to see value in the journey, even when a destination feels far away.
It's why I've been doing my Intention and Goal-setting Sessions for almost a decade now. Today, we're going to explore what intentions and goals are and how they differ, why intentions are essential for building a strong personal brand, how to pair intentions with goals and create a powerhouse strategy. Finally, what to do when you don't achieve the goal.
By the end of this episode, you'll have a fresh perspective on how to stay aligned, motivated, and purposeful no matter where you are in your journey. So grab a notebook or maybe just that glass of wine or bourbon and let's get into it. Let's begin with the basics. What is the difference between an intention and a goal?
A goal is a specific, measurable outcome that you're striving for. It's the “what.” It's a tangible thing that you want to achieve. Think of it as the destination on your GPS. Remember SMART goals that we learned when we were doing pretty much anything. Example of goals are I'm getting promoted to partner at your firm by the end of the year, publishing a thought leadership article in a major publication, landing 10 new clients for your business in the next six months. Those things are specific, measurable, actionable, relatable, reliable, and time-bound.
Now, an intention is different. It's a guiding principle or mindset that helps shape how you pursue your goals. It's the why and how, the fuel that keeps you moving forward. I want you to think of intentions as the energy that you bring to the journey. Some examples of intentions include, “I want to show up authentically and add value to every conversation. I'll focus on collaboration and mutual growth in my relationships. I want to embrace learning and resilience no matter what challenges arise.”
Again, it's like the covering for the goal. The difference is the goal is about the outcome and the intentions are about the journey and the process. The thing about it is that you can hit a goal and still feel unfulfilled if you didn't align with your intentions. People don't talk about this a lot. Conversely, you can miss a goal, but still feel accomplished because you stay true to your intentions. I really love that about intentions.
Intentions are about the journey and the goal is about the destination. So, if you think about why intentions aren't important for building a personal brand, here's the thing, your brand isn't just what you achieve, it's about how you make people feel, how you feel, the values you demonstrate, and the consistency of your actions. Your brand is a story people tell about you when you're not in the room.
So, if you think about that, intentions are the invisible drivers of your brand. They showcase your values. Intentions reflect what matters most to you and people notice when your actions align with your values and also when they don't. They build trust and consistency. When you are intentional, people can sense the authenticity behind your efforts and those things strengthen your credibility. Also, intentions keep you grounded.
In a world where external recognition and metrics can be overwhelming, intentions remind you to focus on what truly matters. For example, let's say your goal is to become a thought leader in your industry. Without an intention, you might focus solely on output, publishing articles, speaking at events, or growing your LinkedIn following. But with an intention like, for example, I want to inspire and educate others through authentic storytelling, your actions will feel more purposeful.
Even if you don't immediately see the results you want, your audience will connect with the authenticity behind your work, and your brand will grow in a more meaningful way. It's not just to what you do, it's to how you do it. I think this is really where intentions shine. They give you encouragement along the way. I mean, I don't know about you, but I've had moments where I've set a big goal and I didn't quite hit it and I feel like we've all been in those places.
Maybe you wanted to hit a revenue target, land a specific goal, or complete a major project. When you fall short, it's easy to feel like you failed. But intentions can help you shift the narrative and that's what I love about them. Let me give you an example. Imagine your goal is to land a board position in a nonprofit. Along the way, your intention might be to build authentic relationships with key decision-makers and to demonstrate your value as a thought leader.
In that case, even if you don't get the board seat right away, your intention ensures that the journey was still meaningful. You're still building relationships. You're still demonstrating your value as a thought leader, even if you don't hit your actual goal so that gaining visibility in your field or learning valuable lessons about how to position yourself and your brand still is a win.
With intentions, there’s always a benefit. I love that because there’s a benefit even when the goal itself feels out of reach. Intentions remind you to celebrate and acknowledge the process, the connections you made, the courage it took to step out of your comfort zone, the lessons that you learned that will serve you in the future.
Many of you know that I have been saying that I was going to write a book for a few years now and that has been my goal and my intention. But really for the first time, I think this year, both of those things have lined up. I am acknowledging that I'm getting further in deciding what my book is going to be about, coming up with the chapters, coming up with the outline, and thinking about who I'm going to pitch to when I have my book outline ready.
That means that I don't have the book yet, but the intentions are making me move towards my goal. I want to think about how to combine your intentions and your goals to create a winning strategy. Here's what I recommend. As I mentioned before, you want to start with a SMART goal.
What does that mean? Smart is Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. An example of a SMART goal is I want to publish three articles and leading industry journals by the end of next year. So. Specific, what? Achievable and Time-bound.
If you pair that with a clear intention, asking yourself, “What mindset or energy do I want to bring to this goal?” That might look like, “I want to write with authenticity and focus on sharing insights that empower others.”
It's not just what I'm going to write, but how I'm going to write it. When you think about part three of the formula is tracking your progress, not perfection. Use your intention as a measure of success, even if you're not hitting every milestone perfectly.
Here's an example. Last year, one of my goals was to host a sold-out workshop series. My intention was to create a space where people felt seen, heard, and empowered. I did not sell out every session, but I received incredible feedback about the impact of the workshops so my intention was fulfilled. For me, that's what mattered most because those people will go and tell other people and will get me into spaces and places where I will have sold-out workshops for series going forward.
I think it's important to think about what happens when goals don't go as planned. I mean, let's face it, not every goal will go as planned and that doesn't mean that the effort was wasted. This is why I love intention so much. They help you to reframe what might look like a setback into a valuable learning experience.
For example, let's say you didn't get that promotion. Reflecting how your intention was to show up as a leader and how that strengthened your confidence and visibility. Let's say you miss your revenue target. Look at how your intention to build meaningful client relationships resulted in referrals or future opportunities.
Intentions teach us that success is not just about the outcome. It's about who we become in the process. I know I'm going to sound like an evangelist right now, but it's about who we become. I love it because if it's just singularly about goals, then sometimes we may not get there, but we always get there when it comes to intentions.
Let's bring this all together with some actionable steps. If you want to reflect on your values, ask yourself, for your brand, “What do I want to be known for? What kind of energy do I want to bring to my goals?” When it comes to setting those SMART goals, I want you to write down clear, measurable targets that excite you and challenge you.
Pair every goal you have with an intention. For example, if your goal is to double your LinkedIn connections in six months, then your intention might be to show up consistently with value-driven, authentic content on LinkedIn, which will, again, work towards doubling those connections.
I can't say it enough, but because intentions are part of our plan now, it's important to celebrate your progress along the way. Keep a journal, keep a wins folder, keep a wins jar of small wins, lessons learned, and moments where you felt aligned with your intentions, and maybe you've met your goals. Of course, you want to always revisit and recalibrate.
Like your brand, your goals and intentions can evolve around over time. You want to check in regularly to see if the goals and intentions still align with where you're headed and be open to if they shift. Here's your challenge. I want you to write down one goal you're currently working on, then pair it with a clear intention that reflects the energy and the values you want to bring to that goal.
Remember, goals give you a destination, but intentions give you the encouragement, the alignment, and the joy—I love that word—that you need to navigate the journey. Together, they're ultimately the power duo for building your brand. I want to remind you, if you're hearing this before my annual Intention and Goal-setting Session that I do every January, please do join us.
It is two hours of me guiding you through exercises to help you pick a word of the year, do your vision board, think about your goals, and reflect on what you've accomplished in terms of your attention and goals for the previous year. It's a powerful exercise. It's a webinar. I'm the only one on camera for two hours and we really create magic.
If this episode resonated with you, please share it with a friend or colleague. I would love for you to tag me on LinkedIn on Instagram and tell me about the goals that you set and met, the intentions that you set and met, and how they are shaping your past journey or your journey as you go forward. Until next time, everybody, stand by your brand. You've got this.
