What’s your biggest dream?

You know, the one your heart whispers to you at the end of a long, stressful week… the one that comes to mind when you’re thinking about how your life is going… the one that will get you further along the road to happiness and fulfillment if you can achieve it? 

Stop reading for a second and bring this dream to the front of your thoughts – don’t let a fear of failure or overwhelm or being unsure how to make it a reality get in the way – the more ridiculous it seems, the better.

Say this dream to yourself – out loud or in your head, either way is fine.

How much would you like to fulfill your dream on a scale from 0-10? Go ahead, give yourself a number.

I’m assuming that your biggest dream is pretty important to you. You may be well on the way to achieving it or you may be struggling because you’ve tried many times before, but couldn’t make it happen or you don’t know how to take the first step.

I would like to share with you a proven method of success for achieving your dreams. To give it some context, I’m going to tell you one of my big dreams: to help people who struggle with one or more chronic conditions and/or injuries to lose weight and gain strength.

What I’ve written is called an outcome goal. Outcome goals focus on the end result but don’t describe how I’m going to get there. Losing 25 pounds or having healthy cholesterol levels or winning a marathon are all examples of outcome goals. Notice how outcome goals may not be completely within your control. Someone else might be faster than you and win the gold medal. 

You can contrast this with what’s called a behavioral goal: I’m going to teach my clients with shoulder issues corrective exercises that help improve shoulder strength and mobility. This specifically states what I’m going to do. Eating 3 servings of vegetables a day or going for a 30-minute walk 5 days a week or adding intervals to your training regimen are all example of behavioral goals. You either do them or you don’t.

Behavior goals are smaller pieces of outcome goals. It’s changing how you’re eating and getting more exercise that will help you have healthy cholesterol levels. It’s making sure you run the weekly miles and adding intervals to your training regimen that will help you win the marathon. More importantly, it’s engaging in CONSISTENT behaviors that will help you achieve your goals. 

You can use this to achieve your big dreams by looking at outcome goals and breaking them up into smaller behaviors – what do you need to do consistently to reach your goals? Start small – big dreams are made up of many pieces, so pick one thing that you can do now to start you on the path. Once you’ve got that down, what’s the next thing you can add that will get you even further down the road? It’s ok if you fall down along the way – progress is made up from overall consistency, so just keep going. 

Today’s the perfect day to start. What’s one of your big dreams? What small behavioral goal can you do that will help you achieve it? Let me know in the comments below.