Usually, any action is chosen with several goals in view. Evaluating options can be improved if all the goals are laid out. Even if there is only one primary goal, it is useful to define it clearly.

A common pair of competing goals is that of maximization of one thing, while minimizing risk of losing something else. For example, subsistence farmers with little or no back up resources may value minimizing the risk of crop failure above maximizing yields, and thus prefer a drought tolerant but low-yielding grain to a drought sensitive but high potential one. Risk is particularly important in the context of probabilistic climate forecasts, since all outcomes are possible, and only the likelihood of any one outcome is shifted. When identifying your goals, be sure you consider what you are willing to forego, as well as what you wish to gain.