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Why Your Goals Can Kill Your Dreams
A simple distinction between dreams and goals, and why it matters
When I begin working with a new business client, one of the first things I want to get a feel for is their hopes and dreams — that is, what would they most love to see happen for their business, their customers, their industry, themselves, and the wider world?
But when I ask them about their dreams, they often tell me about their goals and expectations instead. Here’s a simple distinction between the two and why it matters:
Your hopes and dreams are what you want to have happen; your goals and expectations are what you think should or needs to happen.
Hopes and dreams are a product of our positive imagination. They are make-believe futures that make our hearts sing when we think about them and we think would make them sing even more loudly if they actually came into being.
Our goals and expectations, by way of contrast, are our best guess as to how we’re going to make our dreams come true. They tend to be made up of things we think are the prerequisites to reaching our dreams and the time frames we think we will, could, should, or need to make them in.
But while both our hopes and dreams and our goals and expectations are made up, hopes and dreams…
