An outcome goal says: make 5% this month. A process goal says: take only trades that meet the entry checklist, risk exactly the planned amount, and complete the review each evening. You decide whether you did the second kind; the market decides the first.
The distinction matters because a single trade's result is dominated by variance. A well-executed trade can lose and a poorly executed one can win, so judging yourself on results trains the wrong behaviour, rewarding a bad decision that got lucky and punishing a good one that did not.
Process goals make progress measurable in a period too short for results to mean anything. In a month of forty trades, plan adherence is a figure you can compute and improve, while profit may say little about skill.
Good process goals are specific and countable: stop placed before entry on every trade, no entries within ten minutes of a loss, one review written per session. They should be few. Trying to improve six habits at once usually improves none.
Over time the two connect. If the plan has a positive expectancy, following it more consistently is what lets the result appear.