The Goal Setting, Dream Setting Process That Works For Me

While you can set goals any time of the year, a lot of people prefer the first of the year, month or week to start on new goals because it gives them the feeling of a fresh start. 

I used to be the type of person who would set general new years resolutions and a couple months later, I would totally forget about them. Maybe you have experienced this too and are looking to try something different this year. 

Below, I share what has worked for me and how to approach goal setting and dream setting.

Focus on developing habits rather than creating a long list of “goals” 

The first way to approach goal setting, and this may seem counter-intuitive, is by not setting a long list of goals. Instead, choose to focus on habits. If you have read the book Atomic Habits by James Clear, you are familiar with the concept of habit building vs. goal setting. If you haven’t read Atomic Habits, it’s such a good and informative read. Definitely worth adding to your reading list. 

The overall theme of the book is that a lot of the big things that we want in life are actually achieved by taking small steps everyday. And these small steps are essentially habits that we build. 

To help you get clear on what habits you should work on building, think of the person you are in your vision. If you don’t have a vision yet, think about who you are if you were living your dream life. Are you a healthy, fit person? Are you spiritual? Are you creative and confident? 

Once you have an idea of the type of person you want to live up to, think of the habits that this person would have. For example, the person that I am in my vision is someone who is fit and healthy. Therefore, my habits may look like: exercising 4-6 times a week, choosing nutritious foods over processed foods, and similar habits like that. 

To put things simply, you want to think of the person you want to grow into and the little things that you can do every single day to get you closer to being that version of yourself. 

Write down 10 big dreams for the next 10 years 

Setting vague new year’s resolutions like “lose weight, read more, improve my relationship with Allah,” didn’t get me anywhere. What has drawn me closer to my bigger goals in life is getting clear on what I truly want in life and what my dreams are.

If you haven’t tried dream setting yet, I HIGHLY recommend you do if you are someone who wants to improve the quality of your life. 

This goes back to what I was talking about in the first bullet point. Once you have an idea of the person you are in your dream life, you’ll have an idea of the actions you need to take to help you get there. 

Next, think about the different areas in your life: your health and wellbeing, your spirituality, your relationships, your education (goes beyond school) and your time and money freedom (your career, creative passions, hobbies, finances). 

From there, ask yourself what you would want in each of these areas. What is your dream self doing, how is she feeling? Once you are clear on that, come up with 10 dreams for the next 10 years of your life. So if you were living your dream life in these next 10 years, what is it that you would have accomplished? 

When you think of what those dreams are, write them down as if you have already accomplished them or are currently working on them. For example, in my vision, I am a healthy person. So the dream I write down is “I fuel my body with nutritious foods.” Another dream of mine is to travel the world. So I write, “I go on 3-4 big trips a year.” You want to be as specific as possible. 

After you come up with your 10 dreams, develop a habit of writing down the same goals every single day. I used to use the Start Today journal to do this, but now I use a journal.

Focus and work on one big goal at a time

Once you have your 10 dreams laid out, think of one goal related to your dreams that you would like to currently work on achieving. So for me, one of my dreams is to be a homeowner. So my current goal that I am focusing on is “buy a house.” 

The reason why you want to focus on one goal at a time is because you are more likely to achieve it. Research shows that people who try to accomplish multiple goals are less committed and less likely to succeed than those who focus on a single goal. This is something that James Clear talks about and a lot of leaders in the personal development industry. 

It’s not that you can’t be working on multiple things at once, because you definitely can, but it’s about really honing in on one thing that you want to actively work on and then once you accomplish that one goal you can move on to the next. This also helps you stay motivated and builds momentum so that you are able to keep going and keep pursuing your dreams.