How to Clarify Your Dreams and Goals?

Clarifying one’s goals is a vital step in becoming an effective and productive individual. Failure to do so will often hinder productivity as it prevents people from working towards any objective. A quick session outlining the goals for an assignment keeps a person focused and committed to the task at hand, resulting in a more efficient process.

Dreams vs. Goals

It is important to draw a distinction between dreams and goals, as they differ greatly with regard to scope. Specifically, goals are more easily reached and smaller in scope, while dreams tend to be much grander in ambition. Oftentimes, there are multiple goals that must be attained in order for one to realize their dream. This article discusses some tips for clarifying one’s dreams and goals.

Dreams are not as specific as goals and are often more ambitious as well. Nevertheless, it is still useful to clarify them as it provides someone with a broad objective. Unlike a goal, someone should not be discouraged if their dreams do not come to fruition; establishing dreams does not require significant self-efficacy. Setting a dream can be viewed as the articulation of one’s greatest desires; it is useful to clarify one’s dream since it cannot be attained until it has been expressed, but one should not expect a dream to come true. One cannot achieve a task until they understand the objective and the methodology used to realize it, and clarifying one’s goals and dreams is a vital component in being productive.

Your goal should be realistic and attainable

Setting a realistic and attainable goal is crucial; knowing that the goal is reachable keeps a person focused and confident in their ability to accomplish their task. However, making sure that the goal is manageable is perhaps the most difficult aspect of goals clarification as it requires a very thorough understanding of one’s abilities. People often have a tendency to overestimate how much work they can undertake and how quickly they can complete their assignment. A goal should be set using empirical evidence gleaned from one’s past experiences, and while being ambitious is valuable since it helps people expand their self-efficacy, setting a goal that is beyond one’s abilities can actually hurt one’s confidence and lead to feelings of failure.

Write down the action steps

After one has clarified that the goal is manageable, the next step is to determine the methodology for the task. This should be delineated in great detail, leaving no room for ambiguity since it is precisely with the intention of preventing ambiguity that compels people to establish goals. It may be useful to write down the steps, as the act of putting the process into words organizes the task(s) that are to take place and establishes greater focus. Each step should be accompanied with a timeline that describes how much work should be done over specific time intervals. This requires a strong knowledge of one’s schedule, as well as the pace at which they are able to work effectively—it is important to ensure that there is enough time allocated for the job to be done with care.

Dreams are very useful to articulate your greatest desire. By clarifying your dreams and then setting up attainable goals, you become more action oriented, motivated and inspired to succeed. If you think it seems like a hard task, you can always consult with a life coach to get you started.