Attention! This is a REALLY important step. It will form the basis for a lot of upcoming steps, so please don't skip it!

Create a Dream Spreadsheet

Now that you have your list of dreams, 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. If you are familiar with Excel, doing this in spreadsheet form can help simplify the process even more. Having your list in spreadsheet form will allow you to sort your dreams by category, timeline, and importance. It will also help you see what you truly hope to experience with each thing.

Column A: Category
Column B: Your dream
Column C: The experience or purpose behind the dream
Column D: Timeline
Column E: Priority level

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

Assign Timelines
Next to every dream that you have on your spreadsheet, write down a target date for 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)

Have a Purpose
Your dreams can provide some valuable personal insight into what you really want. Often your purpose, or what you hope to experience with each goal, has little to do with the goal itself. Sometimes you’ll find that you can accomplish the same thing by doing something completely different (and often much cheaper). For example, one of the purposes behind my dream of traveling with my children is to expose them to different cultures and experiences. I still may want to leave “travel to Europe with kids” on my list, but after pinpointing my purpose, I can find ways to do it for much less (such as signing them up for a community Spanish camp this summer).

With each dream you’ve written down, ask yourself these questions:
• Why do you want it?
• What will it provide for you?
• Is this something that society says is important, or one that you personally value?
• Is it consistent with your values?
• Would you want this if nobody saw or heard about it?
• Do any of your goals contradict each other?

In your spreadsheet, summarize the reason or purpose behind each dream.

Look for Synergy
Look at each category separately. Do you see any similarities in purpose? Do several goals provide the same experiences or feelings? That’s synergy, and it can help you more clearly define a single purpose. It can also help manifest your goals and dreams more quickly.

After more clearly defining your purpose in each category, you may be able to better define each dream itself to correspond with your purpose. Can you re-write any of your dreams to create more synergy? For example, a Family Mission Statement is a summary of your family’s purpose. (Extra credit: Create a Family Mission Statement)

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)

By the end of this assignment, you should have more insight into your the true purpose behind your dreams and what you hope to get out of life. You should also have a better grip on which ones are most important to you. In the next assignment, we’ll be focusing on some specific ways we can make them happen and setting short-term goals according to what you can afford.

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I love this assignment! It's especially insightful when my husband and I come up with the dreams together, then prioritize them individually.

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Me too! It's always interesting for me to read the ones I wrote before. Sometimes I wonder what I was thinking when I put them down!

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Yes it is interesting for me to come up with new dreams to replace the ones that have been completed or are no longer important. Being at the point where we are selling our first home all my home project dreams have either been completed or don't matter because we won't be in this house to see things like new windows, AC, or refinishing the floors.

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Kimberly Proud Mommy to Bethany Rose April 2006 &

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I was able to get this done this morning!! I wasn't sure how specific/general I was supposed to be so hopefully I did it correctly.

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Monica ~ Mommy to Matheu, 7 and Liliana, 2