Week 432 (brendan@brendanbarca.com)

Here's your weekly dose of Fuel Your Mind Friday where I share business building ideas, lifestyle design hacks, and inspirational content to help you thrive in your work and find purpose in your life.

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HOW TO DREAM WAY BIGGER IN 2025

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​I never used to take New Year’s Resolutions seriously. What makes a new calendar year the right time to adopt a new habit or start a diet? To me it always seemed like an arbitrary time to ignite personal change. I held onto this belief throughout my twenties.

But one of the problems I encountered from abandoning New Years Resolutions was that I never got a chance to review and reset my career and life goals. This led me to burnout at work and an increasingly mundane personal life. Year after year I just continued with the same habits without having any true strategic direction.

Then, three years ago I decided to do something different. I took the quiet holiday week between Christmas and New Years to reflect on my current life goals and dream up new, bigger things for the New Year. I called this my Dream Big Brainstorm. That year, 2019, I saw considerable improvements in my business and personal life, launching my own business, moving in with my girlfriend, & running the New York City Marathon.

In this post, I have broken down the Dream Big Brainstorm so you can use it for your own life to kick off 2025.

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The 2025 Dream Big Brainstorm

The a key differences between the Dream Big Brainstorm and your typical New Years Resolution are as follows:

1. Dreaming big vs. setting small goals
2. Holistic approach
3. Defining success up front
4. Monthly reviews ​

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1- Dreaming big vs. setting small goals

Rather than setting small goals that can have a marginal impact in your life, use this exercise to dream big and aim higher than what you think you’re capable of. For example, if you’re making $100K/year and wish to make more in 2024, rather than aiming for a $5K raise, aim for a $50K promotion. There’s only upside in aiming higher than what you think you’re capable of.

2- Holistic approach

Take a look at the chart below. It’s important to have a holistic approach by breaking your goals into three major parts (family/ individual/ career). If we don’t do this, we might naturally overweight career when really the entire pie is important for our overall well-being.

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3- Defining success up front

Before you fill in the chart, start by pondering the question, “What would a successful year look like to me?” When answering this, picture yourself in a year from now, at the end of 2024. What would have happened in terms of family, career, and personal aspects of your life that would’ve made it a success? By starting here, you will be able to fill in your “dream big goals” for each category.

4- Monthly reviews

Unlike traditional New Years Resolutions that are established and then soon forgotten, your 2025 Dream Big Brainstorm should be just the beginning of your journey. Once you’ve completed the brainstorm and set your goals, set a monthly reminder in your calendar to review the lists and gauge your progress towards each one. This is how you’ll catch where you’ve slipped, and how you can get back on track. Without this accountability, your dream goals will never come to fruition.

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Use the steps below and the chart above to create your 2025 Big Dream Brainstorm:

Step 1: Ask yourself “What would a successful year look like to me?” Write down some general thoughts and ideas that come to mind.

Step 2: Create a chart with three categories (Family/ Individual/ Career). Put 6-8 bullet point under each section.

Step 3: Use the question from Step 1 to fill in your dream goals for each category. Note: You want to make every dream goal measurable. For example, it’s not enough to write “Get a new boyfriend.” Instead, you’d want to write “Get a new boyfriend by going on 2 dates per month.”

Step 4: Once you’ve filled in each section with 3+ goals, ask yourself, “Am I dreaming big enough?” You want to use this exercise to stretch and expand yourself.

Step 5: Go out and celebrate! Yes - you haven’t achieved any of these dream goals yet, but you set them, which is far beyond where most people get. Go out and get a drink or nice meal to celebrate your success in the year to come. ​

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That’s it!

If you so choose, use this exercise to jumpstart an exciting, inspired and holistic 2024.

One thing to note: since you are dreaming big with this exercise, you may find that you only accomplish 50% or less of the big goals you set for yourself. That’s OK. That’s 50% more than what you would’ve accomplished if you never set them at all. In fact, you might find some of these big dreams may take 2-5 years to manifest.

Set the dream goals. Review them monthly. Make adjustments. And be patient. ​ ​

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- Brendan

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PSA: My wife and I have another blog called The Daily Buddhist that comes out every Wednesday. 🙏 Subscribe here 🙏