If you are a creative person – a writer, painter, animator, handmade basket producer or the like – you probably have some kind of dream, a status you want to reach one day.

But, honestly, that is not enough. Having a vague dream of what you could reach in a possible timeline, when everything goes right… just like a miracle … that is not enough.

I did that for long, long years and lost a lot of time.

So what? It’s no good having a dream?

No, having a dream is just not enough. What I have learnt is that you have be specific about your dream.

You have to specify what it is that you want to reach, what the core details are, like where you want your creation (book, ebook, paintings…) to get shown and in which timeframe you want to reach that goal.

It’s easier to show the point with an example – If you are a writer, you should know:

• What kind of book do you want to write (genre, pages, core themes…)?
• Who are the people you want to reach with your book?
• How will you reach your audience?
• Where do you want your book to be sold – be specific, like “I want my book to stand on the shelves of Barnes & Nobles bookstores.”
• How many readers do you want to reach?
• When do you want your book to stand on the shelves?

So, whatever it is you want to reach, you have to know exactly what you want to reach. This is the only way you can make a plan on how to reach your goal.

The example above is, of course, in case you want to make a living out of what fuels your mind most. Yes, there is an economical aspect to it and there is nothing wrong if you want to write/create just for yourself. But here, too, you have to specific, otherwise it will just staya dream.

Ok, I get it, I need to be specific with my dream – but what is that good for?
A specific definition of your dream provides you with something extremely powerful, something that will most likely set you apart from all the other creative people who keep working their tails off without moving forward, loosing energy and years of their lives.

Being specific empowers you to move forward. By being specific you just provided yourself with an important tool:

A first quantitative measureable check list!

I don’t care about maths, I want to publish my book!

As soon as you have made your checklist (aka specified your dream) in which you split your dream into measureable goals, you can start making plans to reach each portion of your dream. And (!) you can measure the effectivity of your hard work while you go. In case that things don’t work the way they should you can adapt and fine tune your plan.

Furthermore, a measureable checklist is a little and painfully honest helper and powerful mind set companion on your way to reaching your dream: When you are not sure whether you should invest energy in a seducing new project, engage in this other interesting side-project, or play around with social media just for fun – you can quickly check back with your measureable checklist: Does the task you are not sure about pursuing actually help you to reach one of the goals (portions) of your dream?
No? Then don’t waste time on it.
Yes? Than what are waiting for? Get it done!

Take the burden of deciding what to do and what not to do off your shoulders – your measureable checklist will do that for you.

What do you think is the best way to set your goals? Be free to share your thoughts in the comments! 🙂