Step #14: Organizing Your Dreams

Now that you have your list, it’s time to get down to work. Organizing your list is the next step and will help you narrow your focus on which dreams to tackle first. Doing this in spreadsheet form can help simplify the process even more. Having your list in Excel or another similar program will allow you to sort your dreams by category, timeline, and importance and make changes easily.

Categorize
Assign various categories to your dreams: leisure, relationships, health, personal, financial, career, and so on. Aim for about 5-7 categories.

Assign Timelines
Beside every dream that you have, write down a target date about when you’d like to achieve it. Or, to make things even simpler, write down one of the following abbreviations next to each dream.

ST = Short Term (something you’d like to accomplish within the year)
MT = Medium Term (something you’d like to accomplish in the next 1-5 years)
LT = Long Term (something you’d like to accomplish in 5+ years)

Prioritize
Which dreams are you most passionate about? Are there some that you simply MUST accomplish? Which dreams are your “take-it-or-leave it” dreams, the things that would be great, but you’d be fine without them? Assign the following categories of importance:

HI = High Importance
MI = Medium Importance
LI = Low Importance

For example: For me, funding my retirement is highly important. Although I’d like to travel, these are the dreams I’m willing to let go in favor of other things. Most of my travel dreams fall under the Medium or Low Importance categories.

Once you’ve labeled your dreams, sort them according to category first, then by priority and timeline. In doing this, you’ll be able to see which dreams mean the most to you. (In my spreadsheet, I also color-coded the High Importance items red so they would stand out)

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I like this dream stuff! It really has made me step back and look at my life. Thought I should just let you know that, Kim!

Great! That was my intention.

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I'm having a hard time distinguishing between Long Term and Low Importance. Paying off my house is hardly a priority right now.

I am also having a hard time deciding if something is "Short Term" or if I should make an "Ongoing" category. Things that won't be hard to accomplish but I want to keep accomplishing them - for example "go on walks with my family." What do you guys think?

I have to say ....

a) I am so glad I signed up for FTJ

b) I had no idea when I signed up it would be life changing.

c) This is really good material .. and very refreshing... I seriously think you should consider publishing it book form with 100 short chapters on the steps.

d) The categories are eye opening. Mine can easily be divided into three categories, 1)Finances 2) Body Issues and 3) Recreation.

e) I have a lot of work to do!

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Mom to dd (age 9) and ds (age 11)
blogging daily about purpose and personal identity

You have no idea how much hearing this means to me! Thanks, KH!

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I love this assignment! It is really making me look at more than just my finances and our family budget, but also finding out what I really want Thanks.
By the way, I LOVED reading your e-book Kim!

COULDN'T HAVE SAID IT BETTER MYSELF

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My choices yesterday create my today. My choices today create my tomorrow.

Forget the Joneses Holiday Boot Camp Blog

Hmmm, the timeline part should be interesting....hard to be realistic sometimes, so this is pretty eye opening.

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Chopey

I'm almost done with this. Hopefully I can work on this this morning before the kids wake up.