The idea in one breath: Locate the level that would make you wrong before you calculate what you might make. The order is not a stylistic preference — it changes which trades you take.
Why the order changes the outcome
Look at the target first and you will find an invalidation that makes the ratio work. Look at invalidation first and the target either clears it or the trade does not happen. The same chart, the same levels, and a different set of trades taken.
What a real invalidation looks like
It is structural: the level whose failure means the reasoning was wrong. It is not a round number, not a fixed percentage, and not a distance chosen because it makes the position size comfortable. If the honest stop makes the trade too large, the answer is smaller size or no trade.
Valid is not the same as worth it
A perfectly valid setup offering under about 1.5R is still a valid setup and still not worth taking. These are separate questions and collapsing them is how traders end up busy and flat.
Before thinking about a target: mark where a long on this chart would be wrong.
Put it on a live chart
You have done the checkpoint. The concept is worth more on a symbol you actually care about than on a teaching example — the first read is free and needs no account.
Grade a chart free