Dictionary Definition
goal
Noun
1 the state of affairs that a plan is intended to
achieve and that (when achieved) terminates behavior intended to
achieve it; "the ends justify the means" [syn: end]
2 a successful attempt at scoring; "the winning
goal came with less than a minute left to play"
3 game equipment consisting of the place toward
which players of a game try to advance a ball or puck in order to
score points
4 the place designated as the end (as of a race
or journey); "a crowd assembled at the finish"; "he was nearly
exhuasted as their destination came into view" [syn: finish, destination]
User Contributed Dictionary
English
Etymology
Middle English gol, “boundary”.Pronunciation
-
- Rhymes: -əʊl
Noun
Synonyms
- (a result one is attempting to achieve:) ambition, object of desire, objective, purpose, aspiration
Translations
result one is attempting to achieve
- Croatian: cilj
- Czech: cíl
- Danish: mål
- Estonian: eesmärk
- Finnish: maali, päämäärä, tavoite
- French: objectif
- German: Ziel
- Hebrew:
- Italian: obiettivo , scopo , risultato , fine , traguardo
- Norwegian: mål
- Persian: (hadaf)
- Polish: cel
- Portuguese: meta
- Romanian: scop, obiectiv
- Russian: цель (cel')
- Slovak: cieľ
- Spanish: meta
- Swedish: mål
- Telugu: లక్ష్యం (lakshyaM)
- Turkish: amaç
in many sports, an area into which the players
attempt to put an object
- Croatian: gol , vrata
- Czech: brána , branka
- Danish: mål
- Estonian: värav
- Finnish: maali
- French: but
- German: Tor
- Hebrew:
- Italian: porta , rete
- Kurdish:
- Norwegian: mål
- Persian: (gol)
- Polish: bramka
- Portuguese: gol italbrac Brazil, golo italbrac Portugal
- Russian: ворота (voróta) p
- Slovak: bránka
- Spanish: gol
- Swedish: mål
- Telugu: గోలు (gOlu)
- Turkish: kale
act of placing the object into the goal
- Croatian: gol , pogodak , zgoditak
- Czech: gól , branka
- Danish: mål
- Finnish: maali
- German: Tor
- Italian: gol , rete , goal
- Kurdish:
- Norwegian: mål
- Persian: (gol kardan)
- Polish: gol
- Portuguese: gol italbrac Brazil, golo italbrac Portugal
- Romanian: gol
- Russian: гол (gol)
- Slovak: gól
- Swedish: mål
- Telugu: గోలు (gOlu)
- Turkish: gol
point(s) scored
- Croatian: gol , pogodak , zgoditak
- Czech: gól , branka
- Danish: mål
- Estonian: värav
- Finnish: maali
- French: but
- German: Tor
- Hebrew:
- Italian: gol , rete , goal
- Kurdish:
- Norwegian: mål
- Polish: gol
- Portuguese: gol italbrac Brazil, golo italbrac Portugal
- Russian: гол (gol)
- Slovak: gól
- Swedish: mål
- Turkish: gol
Derived terms
French
Etymology
English goal.Pronunciation
Noun
goal (plural: goals)Synonyms
Extensive Definition
A goal or objective consists of a projected state
of affairs which a person
or a system plans or
intends to achieve or bring about — a personal or organizational
desired end-point in some sort of assumed development. Many people
endeavor to reach goals within a finite time by setting deadlines.
A desire or an intention becomes a goal
if and
only if one activates an action for achieving it (see goal-oriented).
It is roughly similar to purpose or aim, the anticipated
result which guides action, or and end, which is an object,
either a physical
object or an abstract
object, that has intrinsic
value.
Goal and types of goals
component of personal-development
literature.
Short-term goals
Short-term goals expect accomplishment in a short period of time, such as trying to get a bill paid in the next few days. The definition of a short-term goal need not relate to any specific length of time. In other words, one may achieve (or fail to achieve) a short-term goal in a day, week, month, year, etc. The time-frame for a short-term goal relates to its context in the overall timeline that it is being applied to. For instance, one could measure a short-term goal for a month-long project in days; whereas one might measure a short-term goal for someone’s life in months or in years. Planners usually define short-term goals in relation to a long-term goal or goals.Project goals
Goal-setters may make goals/objectives more explicit by following the guidelines associated with the SMART acronym:- Specific: one should precisely define objectives or goals rather than tolerating diffuseness or nebulousness
- Measurable: one should define a method of measuring the objectives/goals
- Agreed-To/Achievable: all parties need to agree to the objectives/goals, and to their achievability
- Realistic/Rewarding/Relevant: one must define realistic objectives/goals, the accomplishment of which must make sense
- Time-bound: completion must occur within an agreed time-scale
Personal goals
Individuals can have personal goals. A student
may set a goal of a high mark in an exam. An athlete might walk
five miles a day. A traveler might try to reach a destination-city
within three hours.
Managing goals can give returns in all areas of
personal
life. Knowing precisely what one wants to achieve makes clear
what to concentrate and improve on.
Goal setting
and planning ("goalwork") promotes long-term vision and short-term motivation. It focuses
acquisition of knowledge and helps to organize resources.
Efficient goalwork includes recognizing and
resolving any guilt, inner
conflict or limiting belief that might cause one to sabotage one's
efforts. By setting clearly-defined goals, one can subsequently
measure and take pride in the achievement of those goals. One can
see progress in what might have seemed a long grind.
Cultural attitudes to the desirability and
efficacy of personal goals may differ. For example, the idea of
personal goals may clash with the trend of eliminating/transcending
the personal self in some
forms of Buddhist
thought.
Achieving personal goals
Achieving complex and difficult goals requires
focus, long-term diligence
and effort. Success in any field will require foregoing blaming, excuses and
justifications for poor performance or lack of adequate planning;
in short, success requires emotional
maturity. The measure of belief that people in their ability to
achieve a personal goal also affects that achievement.
Long term achievements rely on short-term
achievements. Emotional
control over the small moments of the single day makes a big
difference in the long term.
By accepting a degree of realism within one's own
goals, one allows oneself not to change reality to match one's own
dreams by one's own efforts alone, but to accept how it is until a
certain degree. This degree of "laziness" can prevent one from
falling into unhappiness by losing too much control of life by
trying to specialize in a very small area and to become a top
leader in that field.
No matter what level of a layerered society one may identify with,
it is very likely that one will keep the above and below
scheme.
On the other side, to put up personal goals does
not necessarily mean merely to put up goals for one's own best. One
does not need to put personal and non-personal in a binary
opposition as in egoistic/altruistic, body/mind, cultural/natural
etc. One may say that there are elements in the making and
realising personal goals that necessarily are transpersonal. In the
interzone of the
personal and transpersonal, the personal but also culturally
dependent judgements of tastes and values will be challenged, and
probably changed. In such personal processes, that might be termed
"crisis", which often
occurs in the processes of achieving personal goals, the
hierarchised up-and-down, better-or-worse scheme can be
altered.
One formula for achievement reads A=IM where A =
achievement, I = intelligence, and M = motivation. When motivation
equals zero, achievement will always equal zero, no matter the
degree of intelligence. Similarly for intelligence: if intelligence
equals zero, achievement will always equal zero. The higher the
combination of both intelligence and the motivation, the higher the
achievement.
Goal-management in organizations
Organizationally, goal management consists of the
process of recognizing or inferring goals of individual
team-members, abandoning no longer relevant goals, identifying and
resolving conflicts among goals, and prioritizing goals
consistently for optimal team-collaboration and effective
operations.
For any successful commercial system, it means deriving
profits by making the
best quality of goods
or the best quality of services
available to the end-user (customer) at the best possible
cost. Goal-management
includes:
- assessment and dissolution of non-rational blocks to success
- time-management
- frequent reconsideration (consistency checks)
- feasibility checks
- adjusting milestones and main-goal targets
Morten Lind and J.Rasmussen distinguish three
fundamental categories of goals related to technological system
management:
- production goal
- safety goal
- economy goal
An organizational goal-management solution
ensures that individual employee goals and objectives align with
the vision and strategic goals of the entire organization.
Goal-management provides organizations with a mechanism to
effectively communicate corporate goals and strategic objectives to
each person across the entire organization. The key consists of
having it all emanate from a pivotal source and providing each
person with a clear, consistent organizational-goal message. With
goal-management, every employee will understand how his or her
efforts contribute to the success of an enterprise.
An example of goal types in business
management:
- consumer goals: this refers to supplying a product or service that the market/consumer wants
- product goals: this refers to supplying a product outstanding compared to other products — perhaps due to the likes of quality, design, reliability and novelty
- operational goals: this refers to running the organization in such a way as to make the best use of management-skills, technology and resources.
- secondary goals: this refers to goals which an organization does not regard as priorities
References
- Eliyahu M. Goldratt, Jeff Cox. The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement. ISBN 0-88427-061-0
tottenham
See also
goal in German: Ziel
goal in Lithuanian: Tikslas
goal in Portuguese: Meta
goal in Russian: Цель
goal in Yiddish: ציל
Synonyms, Antonyms and Related Words
Z, aim, ambition, anchorage, apodosis, aspiration, basis, bourn, butt, by-end, by-purpose, calling, catastrophe, cause, ceasing, cessation, coda, conclusion, consideration, consummation, crack of
doom, culmination,
curtain, curtains, death, decease, denouement, destination, destiny, doom, duty, effect, end, end in view, end point,
ending, envoi, epilogue, eschatology, expiration, fate, final cause, final solution,
final twitch, final words, finale, finality, finis, finish, function, game, grand slam, ground, guiding light, guiding
star, harbor, haven, hit, hole, hole in one, home run,
homer, ideal, inspiration, intention, izzard, last, last breath, last gasp, last
stop, last things, last trumpet, last words, latter end, lodestar, mainspring, mark, matter, motive, object, object in mind, objective, omega, payoff, period, peroration, port, prey, principle, purpose, pursuit, quarry, quietus, quintain, reason, reason for being,
resolution, resting
place, sake, score, slam, source, spring, stop, stoppage, stopping place,
strike, swan song,
target, teleology, term, terminal, terminal point,
termination,
terminus, touchdown, ulterior motive,
ultimate aim, use, vocation, windup