How to set goals and achieve your dreams

Maybe you're like many other musicians. You love to make music, but you dream—perhaps just secretly—of getting out on the big stage someday. Would you like to know how you can make your dreams come true instead of just dreaming away in silence? If so, I welcome you to a little coaching exercise—one that requires no intense preparation. Grab some writing paper and a pen, make sure you have about an hour of undisturbed time and get started right away.

Step 1: Find your goal

If you already have a clear goal in mind that you would like to achieve, wonderful! Then you can jump directly to the second step to clearly formulate your goal. However, if you still find it a little difficult to allow yourself to dream at all, that's perfectly fine. After all, this ability - depending on our learning biography - was really trained out of us. So it's time to push the old blockades aside and bring our childlike dreaming abilities back to life!

Right after reading this step, close your eyes for a moment and recall your musical passion. Inwardly paint the most beautiful picture of what you can imagine—you being at the center of the action. What inner images, sounds, feelings, maybe even smells or tastes can you perceive? You don't have to force anything, but can simply see which inner impressions come up on their own. Everything that is fun and pleasurable is allowed here. Feel free to make a note of the direction your dream takes and which of the ideas you - quite subjectively - like best.

Step 2: Formulate your goal

Finished dreaming? Great! Then it's time to formulate your dream. Recall your vision once again. Now begin to specify your dream in writing according to the following criteria. For better understanding, I've included a sample vision in which I dream of a career as a coversong influencer.

Positive: Phrase, in positive terms, what you want (and not what you don't want).

Example: I want to produce my own instrumental cover versions of my favorite songs and make money with them in the long run.

Present tense: Formulate in the present tense or in the past perfect tense.

Example: I am successful with my instrumental cover song versions on YouTube and generate a steadily growing number of subscribers with my videos.

Achievable: Choose a realistic goal. What can you expect from yourself?

Note: Make sure that your dream is within your own sphere of influence or action. You can find this out by asking yourself whether your success depends to a large extent on yourself, or on other people whom you may not even know yet. What can you do to make your dream attainable for yourself?

Example: I will upload a new instrumental video to YouTube and TikTok on average at least once a week over the next twelve months.

Detailed: Formulate your goal in a concrete and measurable way.

Example: My income from ads and collaborations averages around 1000€ in the second year. In the third year, my income increases to around 3000€.

When: Give a specific time frame.

Example: In twelve months, on [specific date], I reached a total of around 3,000 subscribers on all my social media channels together.

Why: Explain why you want to achieve your goal. What is your motivation?

Example: I want to make my passion my profession in the long run because I love to produce music and connect with other musicians through it.

Make dreams come true: Sum up your goal in one sentence

Now that you have clearly formulated your goal, summarize your goal in a sentence that combines all the criteria.

Example: I have successfully started my own business online with my passion of music within three years and love my job.

Step 3: Act "as if"

The third step is to pretend that your target situation has already occurred. For this purpose, you can close your eyes after reading this step and imagine this situation sensually again. What can you see, hear, feel, smell and taste? What does your life look like now that you have achieved your goal? The clearer and more distinct your imagination is, the better! If you like, feel free to make notes about it. Or you can create a vision board on which you record your goal in writing and pictures.

Step 4: Question your successful future self

Once you've developed a clear, detailed picture of your dream, it's time to mentally question your future self. This could be, for example, "How did you actually do it, actually be able to live from your music? Take your time here and write down all the ideas you get during this self-questioning. The important thing here is to have your future self clearly in mind.

If you feel a little strange about the whole thing, that's perfectly normal for now - but try to get involved anyway. If you find it difficult, ask yourself how it would be if it were easy for you. Our subconscious can work wonderfully with inner ideas and images.

Step 5: Define the first steps

In the inner dialogue with your dream self, talk in particular about the first steps. Ask: "What were your first steps on the way to your goal?" Try to collect at least three to five concrete steps and write them down as well. This will give you clear instructions for action that you can implement directly. When formulating the first step, make sure that it can be implemented within the next 72 hours. This way you can directly start to approach your goal. When formulating the individual steps, don't take on too much at once - the smaller they are, the faster you will feel a sense of achievement, which will provide renewed motivation.

In Conclusion

With the help of these steps, you can turn mere wishful thinking into a concrete, achievable goal. All you need is some imagination and confidence. You may find it difficult to think optimistically about the actual attainability of your vision. In such a case, it is necessary to interrupt the exercise and get yourself into a really good state first. You can do this by doing things that you really enjoy. Needs such as pleasure or relaxation can also be in the foreground here. As soon as we feel really good, we stop thinking in a problem-focused way and get into a goal-oriented state, which lets us see the numerous possibilities on the way to our goal again instead of problems. I wish you much joy in shaping and walking this path.

If, in the course of the exercise, you've become interested in networking with other musicians in your area, check out our mukken portal here.