Most people start Goal Setting by having an idea and they think about it some more and then take some action.

Hoping that they will eventually achieve it.

This isn’t unusual because its quicker. The problem is that because you have missed some steps along the way your goal is likely to fizzle out.

If you speak to successful people they will say that it is imperative that you write your goal down. Not type it, write it.

But where does that goal come from?

For some people it is their bosses or their teacher, their partner, coach, media, children. Just about everyone else other than themselves. Most people are setting goals that lack passion and personality.

In my time in the motivation industry we were always taught to write a dream list first.

So there is a couple of types of dreams. There are those where your subconscious is trying to process and store the days events for future reference. These can be weird at times, at least mine seem to be. There are what I call the “Wouldn’t it be nice” dreams. These are where you go to bed and kick the dream off with you winning a billion dollars and then you spend the rest of the night spending the money on world projects, big houses and cars etc. The lottery love these kinds of dreams as they guarantee the next weeks takings. Not too far away from this is what I call dreaming with purpose. This is when you write down your list of dreams. When you do this it is important that your dreams have very few boundaries as they are not goals yet. So if money, size, athletic ability, physical condition, social status and other like things were not a barrier what would you like to do, be or have. Just let the pen flow.

[btx_quote author=”– Allan Waddell” style=”border”]Once you have your dream list you are ready to take a few and work with them as goals.[/btx_quote]

I talk to successful people a lot and they are all amazed that after many years, when they look back at their dream list, how many dreams have been fulfilled.

Beware The Dream Stealer

In a marital arts class where we were talking about dreams a student asked me an interesting question. He asked me if being a martial arts instructor had been on my dream list. This caused me to think a little and as much as I wanted to say yes to him the fact is that it hadn’t – other circumstances did lead me to teaching martial arts however.

When I thought about it, I had an amazing dream to be a pilot. When I was young I built model airplanes and displayed them proudly in my room. I think some ended up tied to the fan so they could actually fly – testing out some of Newton’s laws, I imagine. Whenever we went on a plane I would be up the front in the pilots seat… obviously pre-9/11.  So it was a real dream for me to be a pilot. One night however, I over heard my father talking to a friend and he was saying that I should get this silly idea of being a pilot out of my head and think about being an auto electrician. This overheard word hit my core and I am sure these words started the end of my dream.

My dad was a realist but at the same time he became my dream stealer. Interestingly, I have found myself having to back peddle my realist attitude when my kids come to me with their different dreams and aspirations. Catching myself has been important but at the same time difficult.

So remember your dreams are your dreams.

You may not get all of them but with them you are bound to get some and that is definitely worth the effort.