Now, do you understand what I'm trying to get across here?

Yep. You only have to worry about clarifying (with a verb) if you're publishing, as otherwise by far the most common interpretation of "Goals by 2005" would be the correct one.
My suggested ambiguity is pretty much academic.

I think part of the difficulty (well, for me anyway ) is that a goal is something you have now that happens in the future. "Future goals" is a tautology, but on the other hand it may help create a distinction from "past goals" that you have or haven't achieved already.

Reminds me of the World Cup final, when I was telling people "I'm not expecting to be surprised", meaning that I was expecting the favourites (Brazil) to walk it. Logically speaking the statement is a tautology, but in practice it's meaningful and informative. I feel this sleight of hand is also caused by a confusion of tenses.

But I can't quite put my finger on it.

Suppose this is all getting into linguistics and philosophy.


Fisk
(candidate for VP of Procrastinators Anonymous, 2005)