What is the Purpose of Goals and Objectives?
Feb 26, 2026Summary
Have you ever felt like you are running in circles, doing a thousand things, but never actually getting closer to your big dreams? We often use the words "goals" and "objectives" interchangeably, but they are actually two very different tools in a Christian woman's toolkit. In this practical episode of the Arise, Women of God podcast, host Tamara K. Anderson joins advisory board member and event planner Amanda Powell to answer the question: What is the purpose of goals and objectives?
We move from scattered ideas to a tactical roadmap by defining the difference: your goal is the mountain peak (the strategic vision), and your objectives are the footsteps (the tactical daily actions) required to get there. Amanda shares her brilliant business secret for securing 10 sponsors by reverse-engineering it into a daily objective of calling 3 companies a day. We also discuss the "Dopamine of a Checklist"—why checking boxes works for some and stresses out others—and the "Bubble Bath Fallacy," exposing the lie that busyness equals success. If you are ready to solve the pain of busy burnout and start measuring your success by obedience rather than exhaustion, this episode will show you how to align your big vision with your daily steps.
Episode Takeaways
- Goals vs. Objectives: A goal is the strategic destination (what you want to do or who you want to become). An objective is the tactical action step (your feet moving daily) to get there.
- The Math of Success: Amanda shares how to reverse-engineer a massive goal. To get 10 sponsors for an event, she knows she needs to contact 100 companies. She breaks that 100 down into a daily objective: call 3 companies today. Specific objectives take the mystery out of the miracle.
- The Bubble Bath Fallacy: Women often measure their worth by their busyness, leading to exhaustion that no amount of bubble baths can fix. True success isn't about doing more; it's about doing the right things.
- Seasons of Rest: Look at nature—there is a reason for winter. You cannot hustle 24/7. God designed seasons of rest and renewal. If your goals don't include a strategy for rest, you are setting yourself up for burnout.
Resources
Are you ready to stop winging it and start winning it? Download our FREE Guide to Goal Setting. It will help you define your big strategic goal with God and break it down into daily tactical objectives. 👉 Download the Guide Here: https://www.womenwarriorsoflight.com/offers/WyaLn2gS/checkout
Need accountability? Check out our Women Warriors Accountability Group for free for two weeks! https://www.womenwarriorsoflight.com/join-now
Reflection Questions
- Look at your current to-do list. Are you just "busy," or are those tasks actual objectives leading to a specific goal?
- How would you break down your biggest goal into a daily action step (like Amanda's 3 phone calls a day)?
- Are you a "box checker" or a "get it done" person? How can you tailor your daily routine to fit your personality?
- Do you measure your success by how exhausted you are at the end of the day? How can you embrace a "winter season" of rest this week?
Transcript
Tamara K. Anderson
00:00:01.680 - 00:02:11.480
Have you ever felt like you are running in circles, doing a thousand things, but never getting closer to your big dreams? We often use the words goals or objectives interchangeably, but they are actually two very different tools in a Christian woman's toolkit.
Today, we're answering the question, what is the purpose of goals and objectives? And by the end of this episode, you will understand how to stop winging it and start winning it by aligning your big vision with daily action steps.
And we're going to help you solve the pain of busy burnout by showing you how to measure your success by obedience, not just exhaustion. We're moving from scattered ideas to a tactical roadmap. Stay tuned. Ordinary women, Extraordinary faith. When God calls, we say yes.
The Arise Women of God Podcast hello, and welcome to another episode of the Arise Women of God podcast.
I'm your host, Tamara K. Anderson, and joining me today is Amanda Powell of our Women warriors of Light Advisory Board and amazing goal setting expert. We are getting into the mechanics of goal progress today.
First, we're going to define the strategic vision of a goal versus the tactical steps of an objective. Second, Amanda shares her business secret for reaching 100 sponsors by breaking them down into daily phone calls.
Third, we'll discuss the dopamine of a checklist, why checking boxes is actually a spiritual asset for some and a burden for others. And finally, we'll talk about the bubble bath fallacy, why success doesn't equal being busy and how to find rest in the seasons of life.
But first, let's break down the difference between a goal and an objective.
Amanda Powell
00:02:11.560 - 00:02:43.270
A goal is the what you want to do in that amount of time, right? However long you get that. So it's either what you want to do or who you want to become.
Because sometimes, like if, if you do a fitness goal, you're going to become something, right? And a lot of times that. That what and become kind of go together. Because when you work on a goal, it's going to change you in some way or form.
The objectives then are your feet moving. It is the daily action steps that you are going to take to ensure that you reach that goal.
Tamara K. Anderson
00:02:43.640 - 00:03:08.680
The goal is the mountain peak you see through the telescope, but the objectives are the footsteps you're taking right in front of you. If you only stare at the mountain, you might trip over the rocks.
Amanda uses this powerful principle every day in her event planning business to make sure she actually hits those big targets. And she's going to break down this secret for us right now.
Amanda Powell
00:03:09.200 - 00:05:31.570
So just in the scope of I'll talk about my business world a little bit.
So I do events and our goal is that we're going to do five events and at a time I would pull it up and just read you exactly how specific my goal is because it's very specific. It tells we're going to have five events. It talks about where what the events are going to be called. So we already know them.
How many people ticket sales that I want to have. So sold, how many speakers I'm going to have. Like, it's all right there and then it's got the end of the year on it.
So then my objectives then are for this first quarter, my job is to network with companies that I want to speak. I've already decided who I'm trying to target and get. So now I have to reach out to them. So my daily tasks.
So like for today, I am reaching out to three different companies that I would like to come and present. And I've got my first, first email that goes out to them. I've got my phone call that goes out to them.
Like, I've got it all right here on how I'm going to do that. Once that happens, then I'm going to schedule a zoom meeting with all of them, right?
So it's all those little tiny tasks that's going to lead to getting to this goal up here. And I would say the one thing that I would say is that the goal is broad and vague.
If it's broad and vague, your daily action steps are going to be broad and vague. It's going to be harder to get them to come down. I take my goal and I make it as specific as I can, right down to ticket sales, right?
We will sell 100 tickets and have 10 sponsors. Like that is in my goal. So in order for me to have 10 sponsors, I know that I got to reach out to 100 companies, right? I got to reach out to 100.
So in my objective, that's what I'm working on is by the end of the quarter, I've got to make sure that I have reached out to at least 100 to get my 10. So then I break that down into my daily tasks. If I've got to get, if I've got to reach out to 100 to secure 10, how many am I contacting in a day?
Right? That is my one focus. When, when that focus is done. Now I'm focused on, on venues and I'm focusing on where are we going to host this.
So I try to do four objectives with every Goal because it goes right along with the quarter. Right? And one, you get to celebrate your successes. It helps you measure the gain and not the gap.
It definitely helps you, but also lets you know if you're going to meet that goal.
Tamara K. Anderson
00:05:31.730 - 00:06:42.570
Isn't it amazing that specific objectives take the mystery out of the miracle? When you know you need to call three companies today, the giant goal stops feeling so scary and unachievable.
But once you have the list, how do you actually feel about it? Are you a box checker like me or does the list itself feel more like a weight? Can I just say, I'm a huge fan of checking a to do list off.
So these little objectives that you're doing and you get to check off, oh, that does my heart good. I feel like I've accomplished something at the end of the day. But if I put a big goal on there.
So I have my to do list on the right side of my planner page. And yes, I still use a physical planner. Some people really like to do it on their phone.
I like to have it in front of me and actually check it off with a pen. I don't know why, I'm a little old fashioned, I guess.
But on the left hand side of the page, sometimes I'll write my weekly goals and then I've got my monthly goals up on my whiteboard and I've got weekly goals up on my whiteboard and I get to check them off there too. Because if you get to check it off in two places, it's even better.
Amanda Powell
00:06:45.370 - 00:07:05.590
And so many people. Tamara love to check the box. I am not a box checker. I'm not.
I just want to be like, okay, it's done. I don't. I'll make the list. I'm more of a, like, I don't know. That's just not. I do not love checking off the box, but I will, but it's not my thing.
Is that crazy how some of us love it and some of us are like a box?
Tamara K. Anderson
00:07:06.310 - 00:07:07.670
You just want to get it done.
Amanda Powell
00:07:07.750 - 00:07:09.270
I just want to get it done. Yes.
Tamara K. Anderson
00:07:09.830 - 00:08:33.020
Whether you love checking off a box or actually hate it, the purpose is still the same. To keep your mission from being forgotten. But as women, we have to be careful. We often confuse being busy with being successful.
And if we aren't careful, we end up needing a mountain of bubbles just to survive the stress we put ourselves in. So set a reasonable amount of goals and objectives for a reasonable amount of time.
Be wise as you're setting your goals so that you don't overwhelm yourself, because often. And I think we have this challenge, especially as women, we are juggling so many balls in the air.
I'm doing this and this and this and this that we burn out, and then we feel bad because then we don't accomplish anything, and we get really down on ourselves and discouraged and all that stuff. So, yeah. Word of caution. Be wise in your goal setting.
Take time, if you're feeling super overwhelmed, to look at everything you're doing and decide which of these things is really helping me versus what can I get rid of.
And I often do that prayerfully because, like, sometimes I feel like God wants me to do a whole bunch of stuff, but when I pray about it, he's like, you don't have to do that. I'm like, really? Oh, okay. Yeah.
Amanda Powell
00:08:34.710 - 00:09:01.040
Yes. And. And it's like, oh. Sometimes us as women, we feel like we measure success by how busy we are. That's. That's a measurement to us that we take on.
And then we're, like, at the end of the day, exhausted, and there's not enough bubbles that can go in the bubble bath to take away all of the stress that we've just allowed to be put on us just because we think that success equals busy life, when that's not. Not what it has to look like at all.
Tamara K. Anderson
00:09:01.360 - 00:09:58.250
And so maybe one of the goals that you should throw out there is that I will lead a more balanced life.
I know that's something I had to really look at several years ago because I had that extreme work life balance imbalance where my parents were really, really bad examples of this. And that's the way I learned to do it. You go to work, you.
After you have dinner, you're working clear till the hours of the night, and then you go to sleep and you rinse and repeat, and that's what success looks like. And my husband, thank goodness, is a better example. He does his work, he's done, and he takes the evening, and he spends it with family.
And I'm like, that is such a better way to live life, to live more balanced. And so just remember, in your goal setting and your objectives, find that balance and realize that rest is a part of that, and it's okay. Yes.
Amanda Powell
00:09:58.250 - 00:10:07.690
And the seasons of time, right? Like, we have seasons for a reason. We could learn so much from our seasons if we would just allow that there is a time to rest and renew.
Tamara K. Anderson
00:10:08.650 - 00:10:58.270
Objectives are simply the daily bread of your big vision. If you're ready to stop measuring your worth by your busyness and start measuring it by alignment to God.
Go download our A Guide to Goal Setting for Christian Women. It's free on our Women warriors of Light website and it will help you define your big goal that God knows you can achieve when you set it with Him.
And if you need a community to help you reverse engineer your divine mission without burning out, go check out our Women warriors of Light Accountability group. The links are in the description below. So my friends, take one purposeful step today. Check off that objective and move towards your goal.
And until next time, may you arise. Do it God's way, God Strong.
