As you pursue your dreams, you should be writing big goals, breaking those big goals down into smaller goals, and tracking them all. If you’re experiencing failure quite often, it’s important to look at the goals you are setting and be sure that the actual act of setting goals is not where you’re failing.
As I’ve discussed on my podcast — Master Your Mission — in the past, you should set goals using the SMART method of goal setting. Your goals should be:
Specific — Choose a specific thing you’d like to achieve.
Measurable — You must be able to measure your progress toward accomplishing it.
Attainable — Your goal should be practical. It should be something that pushes you but is within your real ability to achieve.
Relevant — It must be something that currently applies to your life.
Time Related — You must give yourself a specific time frame in which to achieve it.
Check out the Setting Goals & Crushing Them episode for more about that subject.
I want to focus on one particular element of setting your goals though — Attainable.
If you’re constantly setting goals, doing your best to accomplish them and still falling short, you may be setting unattainable goals. You need to take a look at your small goals as well as your big, overall goal and be sure you’re not chasing a fantasy instead of a dream.
For an ambitious person, it can be really easy to mistake a fantasy for a dream. Dreams are based in reality, whereas fantasies are not. If you’re chasing a fantasy, you could be setting yourself up to pursue impossibilities and experience extreme frustration and disappointment.
Your dream is not fictional. Although it may seem out of reach, it is something that you can actually achieve and it is within the realm of possibility. It should push you and bend you beyond your current state, but you should either have or be able to obtain the means to actually achieve it.
A fantasy is not based in reality. A fantasy is impossible to achieve. It’s okay to have fantasies, but it’s really important that you know the difference between a fantasy and a dream.
You should dream big. Dream big as fuck! But don’t allow yourself to mistake your fantasies for your dreams. With each dream you accomplish, set new goals to achieve a even more. You’ll live out your dreams and avoid getting caught up in the never ending battle of chasing your fantasies.