Everyone needs to dream. I’ll repeat that again: everyone needs to dream.

Your dream matters. When you are doing your daily stuff, it should serve a purpose for you. At least some part of what you do should serve your unique, personal, meaningful dream.

Have you heard of the book “Smarter, Better, Faster?”

There’s a chapter that breaks up setting goals into a more useful way. I like that it’s a manageable way of having what I call a person-centered plan. Many people have heard of SMART goals but not all have made sure the goal really connected to meaning. Combining two types of goals, stretch and SMART, helps you get there.

What is your stretch goal? The thing you want to achieve, the place where you want to be? Get ambitious about what you want and what matters to you, you do not need to see how you’re going to achieve it just yet. That’s where ambition comes in. Let’s say my overarching goal is to wear a certain red dress to a wedding even though I feel so far off from ready to do that.

Now write down your stretch goal (a big dream that you have). Maybe you want to get a promotion at work, retire, get married, mend a relationship, take on public speaking, reach a health goal, free yourself of something you don’t want to do…it will be specific to you.

It is so key to connect to the overarching vision of what really matters to you and has meaning. Where do you really want to get, your dream vision? The stretch goal you identified inspires the SMART goal.

Let’s break it down into what fits SMART.

That means having it be specific, measurable, achievable, reliable, and on a timeline. We need to engage with our goals, and engage by writing them ourselves if possible. Or signing off on it. Some way to own the information and think it through.

Fill out each section of yours as we go through SMART.

  • S=Specific. Your next step is to find a specific route or routes to that goal. This is an effort, perhaps an experiment. My specific might be one thing or a few things. It might be that I will participate in Weight Watchers or another diet or some other way to affect the shape I want for my red dress.
  • M=Measurable. Now I need it to be measurable. If I’m going to a diet program, I will use their weight loss parameters of tracking what I eat within limits, and attend once weekly.
  • A=Achievable. I can make it achievable by planning to attend on Saturday mornings, and letting my family know I will be doing that.
  • R=Realistic. I will anticipate a realistic amount of weight loss that the program is recommending of 1 pound/week.
  • T=Timeline. I want to lose 15 pounds so 15 weeks of attendance should mean I fit into by my dress. If that wedding is more than few months away, I will likely be able to do this if I keep at it.

I know I have this plan in place and should be a size that will let me fit into that dress! You have a roadmap toward your stretch goal now too.

How’s your goal looking?

For my goal, I don’t exactly know if I will be comfortable with how I look in the dress but I’m hoping being down 15 pounds will make the difference. It is a stretch goal so I might reach this SMART goal and realize some other effort is needed. Maybe I need to enhance my own self-image first or there’s some other part to reaching that stretch goal.

Every day you have some window of opportunity to get to where you want to be. If you know depression, anxiety or other struggles are holding you back, take action so that you can feel some relief.

Therapy is about creating change for and with someone, change that gets them where they want to be. Counseling/therapy may be a part of the goals it takes to get where you want to go. If you’re ready, contact me and let’s see how close we can get. Either way, good luck with your goal and let me know how it went!

Published by Mer