“Nothing happens unless first we dream.”
—Carl Sandburg

Surely every human being on this spinning earth has dreams. What have some of yours been lately: winning multimillions in a lottery, having Harvard beg you to enroll, sinking a championship-winning basket to the cheers of thousands, getting an Oscar for your first feature film? Maybe you dreamed of walking on Mars or finding a cure for AIDS. Perhaps you imagined saving the rainforests or ending war forever. Dreams can be lifelong or momentary, personal or universal, weighty or frivolous.

Dreams let us try out scenarios as rich as our imagination can make them. Dreams are the starting point for our accomplishments. Without dreams, life just happens to us.

Set Your Goal

Goals are the way people reach their dreams. But that doesn’t mean that with the proper goals, you can reach any and all dreams. You may dream of winning the lottery, for example, but there’s really not much you can do to make that happen (buying 5,000,000 lottery tickets is not a realistic option). You may dream of becoming a six-foot-tall, Russian fashion supermodel with an enchanting accent,. You can set your goal, but you will not meet it if you are a five-foot-tall American teenager. These dreams cannot be translated into goal setting and success. Goals are things you want that you might actually achieve.

Getting Motivated

Another thing about goals is that you have to really want them. Really, really want them. Rewarding as they may be, reaching goals can be tough and time consuming. Sometimes it may feel as though the whole world is conspiring to keep you from accomplishing your goals. When you sort through your dreams to figure out meaningful goals—goals that are yours alone, not ones other people might think are worthwhile for you—you’ll find goals you can stick with. Along the way, you’ll get to know yourself better and like yourself more. Getting motivated and aiming for your goals, whether or not you achieve them, can give a huge boost to your self-esteem.


Sara Jo Schwartz is a book editor and writer based in Grand Haven, Michigan.