Last month, we kicked-off of the Personal Goal Setting Series. This month, we are rolling up our sleeves and digging in. Join me this month in part two of the series- Goal Setting: Create Your Dream Life.

As a refresher, and for those of you who are just joining us, throughout this journey, we will be focusing on Dave Ramsey’s 7 areas of Goal Setting. Why, you may ask? Because, when we are healthy in all seven areas, they help us become a happier, whole, more balanced version of ourselves.

Not in any particular order, these areas are:

To create Your dream life, first, you must DREAM!

This is the fun part! Before we start focusing on the nitty gritty details in the 7 focus areas, this month we are doing my absolute favorite activity as a coach. Dreaming! The work we do here will guide and help develop plans in the 7 areas we will tackle along the way.

Dig out a journal, a notebook, a napkin, a piece of paper or your laptop and let’s get started!

Close your eyes and imagine you living your dream life. And I do mean dream life! Don’t be afraid to go for it! Jot down what it looks like. This sounds easy, but I assure you, it can be challenging, especially to those who have never really dreamed before. Don’t think, just write, in great detail. Be specific.

I strongly encourage you to have your spouse create their dream life as well. It can really help you identify where you are on the same page and where you are on completely different planets! It can help you make plans together.

Here are a few prompts to help you get started

You wake up in the morning, what does your day look like? What time is it? Where do you live? What does the scenery look like? Do you live in a condo, a house, an apartment, a van? In the country, in the city? In the desert, in the mountains, on the plains? In another country?

What do your relationships look like? Are you single, married, dating, have children, have pets? Do you have an active social life? If so, who is in your social circle and what activities are you doing?

How do you feel? Are you happy? Do you exercise? What do you do with your free time?

Do you travel? If so, where are you going, and how often?

What are you driving?

Do you have money in the bank? How much? Are you debt free? Do you have investments?

What do you do for a living? How much do you work? How much money do you make per year?

Who are you? What qualities do you possess? What education do you have? Do you volunteer somewhere?

Tips From a Coach

If you are visual, create a dream life board on pinterest. Or revisit pins you have already saved for inspiration.

Do a first pass on this list and then sleep on it. Let your mind wander. Revisit this list the following day and fine tune it and add to it. Often, you may realize you didn’t dream big enough the first time! The first time my spouse did this exercise, he said he got up and went to work everyday. (Insert side-eye) The next day, he said, “I don’t know what I was thinking! I own the company in my dream life”! Now that’s more like it! Now we are dreaming!

The goal here is to paint a picture of what the life you want to be living looks like. Of course, I say dream, but I do mean within reason. It probably isn’t reasonable to wake up tomorrow with a billion dollars, but it is reasonable to envision yourself a successful CEO of the business of your dreams with no debt and multiple real estate investment properties. See the difference? One of these we can take logical steps towards creating the life of our dreams, and one of these is a pipedream. Do you know the percentage of people who win the lottery? 1 in 175 million!

Download Your Goal Map

Designing your dream life is essentially a starting point for us on this journey. As we dive into the 7 Areas of Goal Setting, we will be breaking it down into bite sized pieces and forming goals and logical action steps for all 7 categories in order to reach our goals.

Download the free Goal Map, grab a cup of coffee, and meet me back here next month when we dive in and tackle our first Area of Goal Setting.

Cheers