Goals or dreams? It all depends on whether you want to achieve them or not…

For me, goals and dreams are two very different things. Goals are clearly defined targets for where you want to be or what you want to do or experience. They are things that you are taking steps towards achieving often on a daily basis. They are visceral and real even though they may sometimes not be achieved. Dreams are different in that they are often less realistic and often no action is taken in the direction of making them happen on a consistent basis. They therefore simply stay as dreams; they are your “I’d like to…” rather than your “I will… “.

This is the main difference between dreams and goals as although they are both forward thinking, it is only goals that we consistently take action towards making happen. Dreams are a far more passive experience than goals and are therefore less likely to happen as it is only through positively engaging in something that we can know that we can manifest it in our lives.

So what is the benefit of setting clear goals rather than only having dreams? Well for starters when we set clear goals our brains starts to automatically look for ways to make it happen, cool eh! We literally start to spot opportunities that will help us to achieve our goal as our mind is focused on making it happen. Have you ever set a goal and then all of a sudden something has happened that has helped you out. This is the power of the brain and in particular the Reticular Activating System (RAS). This is the part of the brain that is stimulated by the setting of goals and which then tells the brain to look for things to help us achieve that particular goal. Proactive goal setting is one of the most important things you can do as otherwise your mind will tend to assume goals such as ‘paying your next bill’ which are at best pretty disempowering.

Use goals to achieve dreams…

So what do I recommend? Start by writing down your dreams; avoid daydreaming and make the description as vivid as possible. Dream big and describe your dreams in as much detail as you can. Make sure that you include time scales for when you want your dream to be achieved and also to focus on how achieving this dream will make you feel. This is proactive dreaming. Now write down the goals that you will need to achieve along the way to make this happen. Break the dream down into small achievable chunks and structure them in a way that means that you are moving in the direction of your goal and therefore your dream on a daily basis. For instance, you might have a dream to own an Aston Martin. Take that dream and work out the small goals that you will need to achieve to make this a reality. Having a small and achievable goal to complete will help you to keep motivated and will enable you to actively track your progress. This is how to use the power of goals in a way to make your dreams a reality.

“There are two types of people, those that talk about their dreams and those that live them…”

Set your chunked down goals now and live your dreams!!!