Ditch goals and replace them with dreams? I know that many will hotly contest this suggestion. If you spend any time researching goals versus dreams on the internet, you likely will find that the predominate theory is exactly the opposite. That dreams are something wishy washy in the future and if you don’t set goals, it will be a lot harder to make changes to your current circumstances in life. Goals and dreams are typically described very differently with statements such as the following.

Goals:

• “Goals are practical, objective and concrete.”

• “Goals list quantifiable steps to be met on a timeline.”

• “Goals have organized and focused action plans.”

• “Goals list stated tasks to completed by a certain date.

• “Reaching goals requires organization, focus, discipline and effort.”

Dreams:

• “Dreams are passionate wishes about what we would like in our future.”

• “Dreams are desires about what you’d like your life to be.”

• “Dreams are not restricted by your current reality.”

• “Anything is possible in our dreams.”

The Language of Goals versus Dreams

Take a look at the adjectives describing goals - practical, concrete, objective, quantifiable, organized and focused. These words all describe how we like our mind to function - in organized patterns, capable of creating categories for memory, so that we can easily define and articulate action plans. Just saying these adjectives aloud puts me in a “thinking mode” of being. The attention is on brain activity and how to think something into being.

Dreams on the other hand, speak the language of the heart and soul. There is often a pull, perhaps even a gentle ache from deep inside, seemingly whispering to you to pay attention to these innermost desires. If you allow yourself to speak of them, the passion they stir in your heart is real. You can feel it in your body, in the quickening of your heartbeat, in the change of emotions you feel when you envision the possibilities of reaching your dreams.   

Why is Language of Dreams so Powerful?

It is this difference in language of dreams compared to that of goals that leads me to assert that it is time to ditch goals and replace them with dreams instead. Many people will tell you to dream big dreams, but set realistic goals to help you achieve them. This thought has some merit, but it is my belief that the difference in the language used when working with achieving what you want for the future is very very important. When it comes to creating and altering your current reality, the mode of feeling is infinitely more powerful than the mode of thinking. When we envision how we would look and feel if we were to realize our dreams, our subconscious begins to activate movement in a direction to create the vision. This is where mountains are moved, magic begins and miracles are formed. In the subconscious realm, the opportunities and avenues to success are infinite.

The mind will easily convince you to strike down a potential avenue toward success, rationalizing all kinds of reasons why it won’t happen, can’t be done and is beyond your ability. This is naturally how the conscious mind works. This phenomenon can be overcome through a practice of mindfulness, but working with your subconscious as well can still give you an extra boost in the right direction. Harnessing the power of your subconscious through feeling can more easily help you create the big dreams that you may have a tendency to doubt in your ability to make happen.

Who is Really Speaking in a Goal?

Another reason to change the language we use to be more dream focused is that when we are setting goals, it is often the voice of others that appear in the words we ultimately put on paper. Goals often tend to be what we think we should do. And what we “should do” often gets tangled up in the expectations and beliefs others have about us and for us. It is difficult to see through the lens of the beliefs we have adopted over the years from parents, teachers, friends and society as a whole. When we dream we tend to overlook all these expectations of us and get to the heart of what we most want and what we believe may be our true purpose in this life. 

Often we are told (or we tell ourselves) to be realistic and focus on a plan that is attainable. We are encouraged to set aside dreams for the reality of life unfolding in front of us in our daily life now. So in our internal dialog we tell ourselves we will set aside these passions for later when we have more time and less obligations. But what if later never comes? What if… these steps are masked by the conscious mind and we are walking around with blinders on, not even able to see the opportunities and doors that might open if we could just allow ourselves to be open to the possibilities that might exist in the first place. What if… there was a way to begin taking steps toward these dreams now.

How to Turn Dreams into Reality

I would suggest a few slight, but important nuances in taking the action needed toward making your dreams a reality. 

1. Anything you can do to help you access a state of being that allows you to “feel what it would feel like” if you were to make your dreams come true will help propel your forward. This could take several forms:

✨Create a vision board and put it somewhere you can view it daily. When you see it, close your eyes and feel what you would feel like when this vision becomes a reality. These are so powerful! So many things have come into my life that I never would have dreamed would be possible that were first on one of my vision boards.

✨ Choose to pretend each night while you lay in bed getting ready to fall asleep that what you want already exists. Feel what that would feel like and express thanks and gratitude that you have been blessed with this.

✨Meditate on the vision of what life would look like and what you would look and feel like in this new reality.

2. Write down your dreams just as you would your goals, but write them down in a way that expresses the passion and excitement that accompanies them.

3. Find some quiet time where you can close your eyes and consult with your inner self to define some possible pathways to your dreams. Listen to your heart. Feel from a place of intuition. Write these pathways down on paper, converting them to a physical reality that you can work with and refer back to.  

Then staying in a connection with inner self, for each of these pathways list steps you can take in the coming month along this path that could lead you closer to your dreams. At this point these begin to look much like goals, but the nuance is that the steps come more from your gut rather than your mind. Refer back to these often, endeavoring to take at least one tiny step along this path each day - even if this step is nothing more than pretending you already obtained this before you go to sleep. If you get in the habit of taking small steps daily, you will gain momentum and you will move forward in the direction of achieving what you most desire.  

Lastly, when you get discouraged along the way, choose to remind yourself that this is your brain doing the talking and that you have chosen to speak from the language of the heart and soul in this journey. Acknowledge those statements from the mind for what they are - simply statements of the conscious mind. Then get back to dreaming my friend. Love and blessings to you, 💖 Julie