It's good to have dreams, hopes and wishes for your future, but it's better have goals. Many people think they have goals for their lives because they have an idea of what they want to accomplish, but they don't when they will achieve it or exactly what steps they need to take to carry it out. That is not a goal. That is just a wish. Listen as I walk you through the difference between wishes and goals.

Listen to/download this episode here:  

Show outline:


Again, the topic for this episode is driven by events and conversations I've had recently.

2014 is coming to an end, so it's time for creating a plan for 2015
It's also the many people start thinking about New Year's resolutions

The verb “Resolve” means: to decide firmly on a course of action.




What do you want to be? What do you want your life to look like? What do you want that you don’t have now?

I urge you to come up with wildly imaginative answers to these questions.
Imagine your life extravagantly, because nobody can criticize you for your imagination!


What are your goals?
It's great to have dreams, but it's better to have goals.

Dreams are vague, non-specific desires. Goals are specific and measurable.
“I want to be a doctor” is a dream, a good dream.
“I want to be a pediatric cardiologist by the time I’m 28 years old” is a goal, a very specific, measurable goal.


Most people never realize their dreams because they don't convert them to goals.
Think about, visualize, and write out your perfect life in each of these areas:

Home: where would you live, what would your house look like, furniture, view, setting (woods, lake, beach, ocean), paintings, artwork, etc.
Career: what would you like to be doing, who would you like to be doing it with, ideal colleagues, clients, product or service, how would it be benefiting your clients and the world, contribution to world
Financial: how much money would you have, income, savings, assets, investments
Family/Friends: what would your relationships look like? how many friends, what kind of friends, what would you like to do with them.
Romantic Relationships/Spouse: character traits, romance, intimacy, caring, touching, giving, receiving
Body/Physical Health: Ideal weight, skin tone, stamina, endurance, speed, abilities
Emotional/Spiritual: free, open, cheerful, grounded, meditative, prayer, worship, etc.
Community/Service: what kind of community would you live in, activities, neighbors, interactions with them, how would you serve, volunteer, etc.
The World: what would the perfect world look like? would there be peace, war, ozone layer, global warming? How would people groups and nations be interacting?


1953 Graduating class of Yale, surveyed who had specific goals written down. Only 3%. 20 years later, those 3% had a higher net worth than the 97% who didn't have them written down.
There is amazing power in knowing what you want and working to achieve it.
All of your goals should be in line with your purpose, mission, and vision for your life
Be very specific. You can change it as you go, but have very specific goals with deadlines.
All goals should have these traits:

Conceivable: you can think it up in your mind and it is conceptually possible
Believable: you have to believe you can do it. (if you don't believe you can run a mile in under 3 minutes, don't make that a goal. You will never achieve what you what you don't truly believe is possible)
Achievable: same idea as Believable. It must be something you can, realistically, achieve.
Measurable: how much, by when. Must be measurable by someone other than you.
Stated with no alternative: "I want to live on the ocean or a lake" is not a goal. "I want to live on the pacific ocean in Malibu" is.
Something for you, not someone else: "I want my son go get better grades in school" is not a goal for you.
Controllable: something that you can control.