We Act Purposefully, Not Perfectly
This is part 4 of answering the question: What do people act, choose, and change?
One Takeaway
People act with intention, but not always with precision. Understanding the difference helps explain why mistakes, surprises, and change are needed for progress.
How We Act
Every action you take has a goal and a plan to get there. Economists call these goals, “ends,” and the tools or steps you use to reach them, “means.” Whether it’s choosing a career, cooking dinner, or trying a new marketing strategy, you’re acting to bring about a future you believe is better than your present.
This doesn’t mean you’ll always succeed, but it does mean you’re aiming at something.
Why We Need Plans
Action is always future-oriented. We act because we expect that doing something—anything—will make our future better. To do that, we form mental blueprints: What do I want? What do I have? What can I do with what I have to get what I want?
Without a plan, there’s no action. Even something as routine as making breakfast requires a series of deliberate steps: What’s in the fridge? How hungry am I? Do I have time to cook or should I grab a granola bar?
Every action reflects a trade-off: time, effort, money, or attention. When you act, you’re making a choice. And every choice says something about what you value in that moment.
Purpose Is Not Perfection
We don’t always get it right. Sometimes the plans and means we choose don’t work. Plans fail. Circumstances change. We misjudge what’s possible or misunderstand what others want. So long as you acted with a defined end in sight, and chose means you believed would get you there you are acting not only purposefully, but also rationally.
A business launches a product that doesn’t sell. A student picks a major they later regret. A friend books a vacation that turns out to be a hassle. These aren’t irrational actions, they’re purposeful actions that didn’t produce the expected result.
The key is that purposeful and rational doesn’t mean perfect. It means people act based on what they believe will work, using the information and resources they have. That’s enough to build a solid economic understanding of the world.
An Example Worth Considering
Imagine someone spends their last $20 on a lottery ticket instead of groceries. To an outsider, that may seem irrational. They may know how slim the odds are of any single person walking away from the lottery as a winner. But from the buyer’s perspective, the potential for a life-changing win outweighs the certainty of maybe a bite to eat.
This is rational action. It’s based on personal goals and limited means. It may not work, and there may be other choices that might have a better chance of working, but it was chosen for a reason. Economics doesn’t have to agree with the ends. It just needs to understand how and why people pursue them.
What We Learn from Mistakes
When plans fail, they teach us something. A failed product, a missed opportunity, or a bad investment reveals a gap between what we expected and what happened. That’s not a flaw in the system—it’s the system working. Real-world feedback helps us adjust. We refine our plans. Then we try again.
This constant back-and-forth between goals and results is how progress happens in the real world.
Why This Matters
When we understand that purposeful action doesn’t mean perfect action we become better decision-makers when working with others and more thoughtful observers of the world around us. We begin to ask questions like:
Are my goals clear?
Am I using the right tools or strategies to reach them?
What can I learn from what didn’t go as planned?
This way of thinking helps us look past the surface of someone’s actions—including our own. Instead of asking, “Why would they do that?” we ask, “What were they trying to achieve?” That subtle change creates empathy, clearer thinking, and better responses towards others.
The Bottom Line
We don’t act randomly. We act with purpose—even when we miss the mark. Understanding this difference between intention and perfection helps us make sense of success, failure, and everything in between. It also reminds us that good economics starts by asking: What were they trying to do, not simply why were they doing that?