Dreams, Goals, & Plans Instead Of New Year’s Resolutions

Have you broken your New Year’s resolutions already? Better focus on dreams, goals, and plans instead of resolutions. What’s the difference?

It’s easy to make a New Year’s resolution. Lots of people make them every year on December 31, then break them by January 2. How can you end the cycle of failed resolutions? Focus on dreams, goals, and plans instead.

Resolutions are Re-Solutions

By definition, a resolution is a re-solution. That means it’s a solution that you make over and over again. You thought you solved your overeating last year, but your binge eating returned with the holidays. You thought you created a solution to your spending problem with last year’s budget, but you blew it when vacation time rolled around. Whenever you have an issue that you have to solve repeatedly, you need more than a re-solution. You need dreams, goals, and plans.

Dream a Little Dream

Did you catch last November’s fight between legendary boxer Mike Tyson and influencer Jake Paul? If so, you might have found it ridiculous that a 27-year-old YouTuber would face the boxing GOAT. Or you found it silly that 58-year-old Tyson had to prove himself by squaring off against a young up-and-coming fighter with only a few bouts under his belt. Whoever you rooted for, you’ve got to admit that it took guts, and it took a dream.

A dream is an idea with intention behind it. It starts with a passing notion, like Jake Paul saying, “What if I fought Iron Mike?” But an idea is just an idea until you give it your attention and intention. Everybody has dreams, but not everybody takes steps to turn those dreams into reality.

What’s your dream for 2025? No doubt it started as a passing thought, like “What if I hiked the Appalachian Trail?” or “I’d like to learn to paint” or “I need to finish writing that book this year.” Dreams are the fuel of great spiritual fire, the inspiration of lives changed for the better. But you’ve got to take steps to make your dream happen. Otherwise, it’s like a fantasy you forget as soon as you wake.

Turning Dreams into Goals

In my work as a behavioral health specialist, I help my clients turn their dreams into goals. Many of my homeless clients say, “I’d like to get sober,” or “I need to get into housing,” or “I’ve got to reconnect with my kids.” I ask questions to prompt them to process whether they are ready to do something to accomplish that vision, or whether it is merely a pipe dream. To help them solidify their ideas, I might ask:

Why do you want this so badly?
When would you like to accomplish this?
What needs to happen before you can make that a reality?
Who do you know that could help you with this?
Where can we go to get the resources you need for this dream?
How can we get started?

Their answers will indicate what stage of change they are at, right now. How would you answer if I asked you the same questions? Are you ready to turn your dreams into goals?

Stages of Change

The Stages of Change model was originally created to explore a person’s motivation to overcome addiction. It can also be used to understand someone’s willingness to turn their dreams into goals and plans. According to this model, there are five steps to move a person from ambivalence to action:

In this stage, someone is not yet aware that there is a problem to be solved or a change that must be made.
In this phase, a person has begun to think about the problem they want to solve. Yet, they are not ready to begin working on it.
At this point, the individual has realized they need to change something, and they commit to it. You could call it the goal-setting and planning stage.
Here, the person actively takes steps to turn their dream into reality.
By now, they have successfully avoided the bad habit, accomplished their goal, or achieved the status they dreamed about. Now, it’s a matter of keeping up the pace.

When you think about the dreams you have for 2025, what’s your stage of change? You probably are past the precontemplation point—because folks at this stage don’t realize they need to do something different. If you’re thinking about New Year’s resolutions, you’re likely at contemplation or preparation. But how can you turn those dreams into reality? That’s where goals and plans come in.

Setting SMART Goals

A goal is a concrete thing you want to achieve once you’ve moved beyond the phase where it’s just a dream or passing notion. To make a goal doable, it needs to be SMART. In 1981, George Duran outlined SMART goals as:

Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Relevant
Timely

If your goal is that you would like to become an athlete, that’s not very specific. For your goal to be SMART, you should narrow it down to a particular sport. If your goal is you’d like to lose weight, make it measurable by determining how much you want to lose. A SMART goal should be attainable, or you’ll just get frustrated and disappointed, then quit. Go ahead and shoot for the improbable—leave the impossible to God. Your goal must be relevant, meaning that it has to matter to you. Nobody can set your goal for you. It must be your goal for you to commit to it. And you must set a specific time frame. “Someday” usually never happens.”

Failure to Plan

Too many people start with great dreams and make big plans yet fail to plan the necessary steps. As a result, they never see their dreams become reality. The old proverb says, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” Plans are step-by-step methods for getting stuff done. If dreams are a view from the mountaintop and goals are a treetop vista, then plans are boots-on-the-ground self-instructions that lead to success.

Dream-Goal-Plan

Here’s an example of a dream-goal-plan diagram:

Dream

“I want to become a novelist.”

SMART Goal:

S – I want to write a novel about a world where people cast lines and nets into the sky to go birding just like they go fishing here on earth.

M – I’m going to write for eight hours per week.

A – The novel is going to be three hundred pages long, and no longer. I know I can get long-winded, so I’m going to be intentional at keeping it short and concise.

R – This novel is relevant to me because it draws from deep memories of fishing with my father. It will resonate with readers because it will evoke feelings of nostalgia. It will also touch on issues of environmental significance.

T – I’m going to have the first draft of the novel finished in 2025, have it edited in 2026, and have it published no later than 2027.

Plan:

- I will create an outline of the book, chapter by chapter.
- I will mark out the time to write on my calendar, and set alarms in my smart watch, to make sure I stick to it.
- I will learn about publishing during the year that I write. I will investigate publishing houses the year that I edit, and I will contact publishing houses when I have completed the book. I will schedule two hours per week to do this, in addition to the eight hours per week that I write.
- I will have ideas for marketing the book, for when I talk with publishers.

By creating a dream-goal-plan plan, you can turn your visions into reality. Just remember—if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.

New Year’s Resolutions

Do you find yourself making the same resolutions every January? Maybe it’s because what you’re really making are re-solutions. You’re attempting to solve the same problems over and over again, with no real goals or plans. This year, it’s time to evaluate your stages of change, set some SMART goals, and make plans that will succeed.