Rational Decision Making: Define the Goal or Objective.

The goal or objective can be a grand, overall goal of a person or a firm. For example, a personal goal could be to lead a pleasant and meaningful life, and a firm's goal is usually to operate profitably.The presence of multiple, conflicting goals is often the foundation of complex problems.

But an objective need not be a grand, overall goal of a business or an individual. It may be quite narrow and specific: "I want to payoff the loan on my car by May," or "The plant must produce 300 golf carts in the next 2 weeks," are more limited objectives.Thus, defining the objective is the act of exactly describing the task or goal.