I referenced my dream list in yesterday’s post but didn’t provide assistance to help you build your own. This post is a quick-start guide of practical application; the article that inspired me to write my dream list is 7 Steps to Self-Mastery, and I highly, highly recommend reading that as well.
Love the life you have while you create the life of your dreams.
– Hal Elrod, Taking Life Head On
Where We Begin
Dream. Now dream bigger.
Here are the categories I use; allow them to prompt your dreams to escape the tip of your tongue. Read through them and let them stimulate your senses and rouse your ambitions. If anything springs to mind, write it down, but don’t dwell on this part yet: just let it mingle with your mind for a minute.
Categories
- Adventure – What sorts of escapades and travel adventures are you interested in?
- Creative – What skills, hobbies, and sports do you want to do?
- Physical – How do you want to shape your health and wellness?
- Legacy – Which causes do you want to support?
- Emotional – How do you want to grow your relationships, both with yourself and others?
- Psychological – What would you try if you had the courage?
- Professional – How do you want to grow in your work and career?
- Intellectual – What do you want to learn?
- Spiritual – How do you want to grow with God?
- Character – Which qualities do you want to incorporate more into your life?
While your mind is wrapping itself around these questions, let’s prep for the big brainstorm.
Step Zero: Preparing the Workbook
Why Prepare a Workbook?
It’s a lot easier to get something done when you don’t have to worry about the logistics and incidentals. For example, when I travel, I check to see where I’ll be attending Mass before making any other plans. I don’t want to find myself flustered, frustrated, and running around panicking because I didn’t spend a few minutes planning ahead; I’d prefer to enjoy my travels by focusing on the moment at hand.
In much the same way, putting a few minutes of prep time helps with actually getting a task done because it allows you to focus on the task at hand rather than the incidentals that accompany it. Here are my preparation recommendations.
Want to Use My Spreadsheet?
Sure; here’s the one I made. (This link will automatically download an Excel file; please let me know if you’d like me to provide another file type!) Delete, add, and change things up to your heart’s content.
First Tab: Summary
Open a new spreadsheet workbook (Excel, Google spreadsheet, OpenOffice spreadsheet – whatever suits your fancy). Title the first tab Summary. Skip the first column. Entitle the second column “Dream” or “Goal.” The third column is to have the title “Category” so you know what type of accomplishment it is. The fourth column is for the Order (of priority). The fifth column is a deadline column; I suggest “By…” or “Target” or “Date” headers. The fifth column is for Notes.
Next Tab: First Dream Category
Leave the Summary page and switch to a new tab. Again, skip column one. The headers of the rest of the columns should read as follows: Goal, Category, Order, Priority, Years, Step 1, Step 1 Date, Step 2, Step 2 Date, Step 3, Step 3 Date, Step 4, Step 4 Date, Step 5, and Step 5 Date.
Replicate this tab (I suggest copying it via the Move or Copy option available upon right-clicking the tab title area) until you have one for every category. Name each of the tabs for easy access, and also write the category name under the Category header; include it for every entry. I also assigned a code letter to each category (A for Adventure, for example) for shorthand and included it in the tab name.
That was easy enough, wasn’t it?
Prep work out of the way, let’s get to the fun stuff!
Step One: Select Goals for Each Category
Maybe some categories will have twenty things you want to do whereas others have two or three. That’s totally fine! I challenge you to have at least two goals for each category, but if you’re on a roll and have a lot of things you want to accomplish, write them all down.
All of them. Long term, short term, and everything in between. It’s good to have a mix so that you know where you’re going in the long term but also have guideposts between here and there so you know you’re on track. This also means it’s great to have short- and medium-term goals that feed into long-term ones.
It may seem a little overwhelming to have a big list in front of you, but it’s a lot easier to whittle down than to build up, and we want to include every dream in your heart. Want to write a memoir in fifty years? Write it down. Trying to compile a compendium of Grandma’s best recipes? Write it down. Considering a trip to the little town in Russia your great-grandparents are from but you don’t know a lick of Russian? Write the trip down and learning Russian as separate goals. All of it. Keep going.
You can certainly add more later, but get out everything you can at first blush.
Step 2: Sort
Go through your list and put each goal in the category it fits best in. (Traveling to Russia, for example, belongs in the Adventure category whereas learning Russian fits in the Intellectual category.) If you finish sorting and find that a category only has one dream (or is entirely bereft of them), add more. We want goals in each category so we have incentive to grow in every area of our lives.
Now prioritize each goal within the category. Use a simple high (H), medium (M), and low (L) notation in the Priority column. I recommend prioritizing based on a few things: how much you want it, how difficult it will be, how long it will take, and whether any other dreams depend on it. For example, if you have to know Russian to make that trip to the little town in Russia a success, learning Russian may be high priority even though it may take a lot of effort and learning a new language in and of itself doesn’t rank highly for you.
Clump the highs, mediums, and lows together in each category. Compare them to see what gets the first priority of the whole category, then the second, and so on until you have the whole category prioritized. This number goes in the Order column; it’s your quick-check of which goals you want to work on first. Repeat with the remainder of the categories.
Step 3: Sketch Out Steps
Where do you start? Write out the logical first step of every high priority goal. If these first steps come easily to you, do the same with the medium and low priority goals. For the high priority goals, write out the steps as far as you can logically see them. Only do this for the high priority goals to prioritize your time and avoid burnout. We’ll revisit the list and can fill it out later; for now, let’s focus on our major goals. We want to walk away from the list not feeling drained, but inspired.
These steps are basically a high level checklist. For example, for the Russia trip, your first step may be to learn Russian as it’s a prequel to taking the trip. The second step may be to plan the itinerary of the trip by writing out a basic outline of the top things you want to accomplish while visiting. The third step could be selecting dates and hammering out the details of what you’ll do on the trip; the fourth may be researching travel options, obtaining a passport, buying the plane ticket, and making lodging arrangements; the fifth may be final trip preparations such as packing; and the sixth may be getting on that plane.
If you need more steps columns, add them. I find five to be helpful and ten to be unwieldy, but you may find it easier with twenty steps. Knowing yourself is awesome! Use your information to your advantage.
For the top one or two goals in each category, write a date next to that first step. This is your personal deadline. By this date, you will meet that step’s goal. Give yourself deadlines on each of the highest priority goals in every category.
Step 4: Summarize and Review
Copy the highest priority columns from each category to the Summary sheet. I suggest referencing the manual entries (type “=” in the cell, then click on the cell you want it to copy in the other tab) because it’s easy, and at this point in the process, you may want to drop out of the red zone and into a yellow zone for recuperation. If you’re instead all about that orange theory, copy the information manually; the process will help drill into your head what you want to do and gives you more time to figure out why you want that.
Look over your handiwork. See that it is good. Awesome job!
Sleep. Look at your goals and plans tomorrow or over the weekend with fresh eyes. Are there any changes your well-rested brain recommends? Review the dreams you’ve written down daily for at least a week. Have you forgotten anything? Did a friend spark an idea? Did you aim high enough?
Step 5: Tell Friends and Family for Accountability and Support
Tell friends, family, and anyone else who might help you on your way forward. When you tell others, the goal becomes more tangible. When you involve others, you have additional reasons to stick to the plan even when the road gets rough. They don’t even have to do anything for this to work!
Prime example: I’m providing an example Dream List. This example is my Dream List with added information: I filled out my C – Creative tab so that this document may help you with your process. In giving you my information, I added details that I hadn’t bothered to put in yet, forcing me to evaluate my hopes and dreams and encouraging me to move forward with them. There is more detail on this template than on my original document because you learn more by teaching others than by simply doing something for yourself. This is why study groups work.
Here’s another example: I found a posting online for a position that perfectly fits my skills and abilities, but in a very non-linear way such that I don’t know how to write a resume for it. I made a phone call to do recon and ask for any information that might help me in the application process. Just knowing that I told someone on the other end of the phone that I’m excited about this opportunity is galvanizing me to figure out how to properly apply.
Step 6: Review and Revamp
Print your Summary and put it somewhere you can see it frequently. It will remind you of why you’re really getting up at 5 am to go for a run while listening to various Russian verb conjugations: ’cause you’ve got a dream to fulfill. Having a hard copy makes your dreams more concrete, and you’re more likely to rise to the challenge if you have the goal in front of you.
Start with a digital copy, then print a hard copy.
The reason I recommend a digital spreadsheet is because I expect changes and updates. Try your hand at origami and decide you don’t like it? Cross it off the list. Discover a new passion? Put it on the list. Are you a quicker study at aikido than you expected? Move up your next deadline for it. Life changes, and so do your goals; don’t give up on something because it’s difficult, but don’t hang on to something just because you put it on the list, either. Know your why, and pursue your why.
Recap: Dream List
Know where you’re going so you can get there. Take some time to figure out where you want to go by setting goals that are meaningful to you. Draft a list of dreams, aspirations, and hopes and take a few minutes to figure out the first few steps to achieving the ones most important to you.
What goals surfaced while you were going through this process? What are you going to do today to take the first step toward your top priority goal?
Further Reading
- Take Control of Your Life: 7 Steps to Self-Mastery by Dominick Albano is the article that inspired my dream list. It’s broken into a three-part series (Steps 1 & 2, Steps 3-5, and Steps 6 & 7), and there’s a lot to digest, but it’s absolutely worth the read. I recommend bookmarking it and returning to it when you feel over-encumbered. This post is based on my practical application of this article, and I’m going to re-read Self-Mastery (again) to see how I can do my dream list better.
- Dynamic Catholic never ceases to amaze me with the content they provide. Dominick Albano wrote another stellar article entitled How to Gamify Your Life which strikes my heart because I identify with it so fully: I’m a Catholic, a casual gamer, and eager to learn the magnificent lifehack for wanting to improve our lives by setting up a scorecard. This is also a very shareable article: who do you want to join your party for the game of life?
