In this podcast episode Brendon Burchard explains how to move from vague hopes to concrete, actionable dreams by defining "targets" – tangible deliverables and lived experiences that embody the dream. He argues that a dream is not an abstract wish (e.g., "I want a new car") but a vivid picture of what you will be doing, creating, and feeling once the dream is realized. Targets are the specific outputs (books, articles, products) and the day‑to‑day experiences (reading three hours a day, speaking on podcasts, engaging with readers) that together make the dream real. Brendon illustrates the process with the example of becoming a famous author, breaking the dream down into a book title, chapter titles, and daily habits. He also ties the target‑setting practice to his "Growth Day" monthly whole‑life assessment, encouraging listeners to set targets across health, family, finances, adventure, etc. Throughout, he stresses the shift from hope to action, the importance of personal autonomy, and invites listeners to join his private group Ultra via progressmode.com for deeper support.
Chapters
Every teacher is probably talking about this, okay, you want a dream. What is it? What are you doing there? And what are you feeling or experiencing there? What are you doing in that dream? What are you specifically doing? Creating or contributing? And I like to do that because it's not a hope now, it's an action. If we can appreciate and scale what's working and feeling it and internalizing it, and we can be purposefully doing and delivering into the dream. Everything changed. People too often, they go, I want this thing. They externalize an external goal. I want a new car. And they think that the new car is the dream. Well, no, a new car might be nice to have. It might be very important and vital for your family even. But what's the dream? What specifically is the that dream? This is where we need our targets. And let me talk about what I mean by targets. Targets are tangible, objective outputs or experiences that make us experience the dream. So this is a fancy way of saying goals, but not really less about goals, more about deliverables and experiences. A target is what are you going to deliver and what are you going to experience when that dream is here? A target, what will you deliver? That's you. That's personal autonomy. That's okay, there's a dream. What are you doing there? What's your actions? What's your daily deliverable or experience there? Meaning if I sat down and said, brandon, my dream is to become a, a famous writer. I'm like, okay, so to be there as a famous writer, what's the deliverable? Like, what are you gonna do? Well, well, you know, I'm gonna write a book. Okay, what is the book? Right. It's real specificity on the thing that you're going to create, give, serve, do. What is it? I want to be a famous writer. Great. What's the deliverable book? Great. What's it called? So you know how to Find Happiness.
Great.
What's the first chapter called? And Breaking It Down. That's your targets, right? The things that you're going to deliver to experience a dream simultaneously. When the dream happens, what do you experience on a day, to day or maximum weekly basis? Well, I wanna be a famous author. I'm like, okay, what's your target there?
Hey guys, it's Brandon. I'm jumping in here real quick. First, I wanna make sure you've gone to progressmode.com to join the newsletter because I have a resource for you related to this episode and I have an upcoming meetup with my private group, Ultra. If you've ever Liked to be in a private group with me where I help you get more progress towards your passion projects or to build your business or your brand in a bigger way. Just go to progressmode.com, click on Private group to apply to. See you can get into Ultra and we can take it to the next level by getting in person and meeting up virtually once a month online as well. Just go to progressmode.com when you're a.
Famous author, what's the target? What do you want to experience? Oh, well, I want to experience. I want to experience. I want to wake up and just read for three hours. That's what I want to experience. I want to read for three hours. I want to message and talk with my readers and I want to go on podcasts and, you know, be on TV shows and, you know, I want that experience of being a media personality. Okay, that's great. That's really good. That's your experience. So you got to deliver a book and you're trying to experience this thing. That's a target, right? That's a clear target of a dream. It's a clear target of a dream. And I'll remind you again, I really highly recommend it. If you haven't done the monthly whole life assessment in growth day, those 10 categories, you might have targets in different areas. You might have a target for what you want your health to be, a target for what you want your family to be like, A target for what you want your finances to be like, a target for what you want your adventure to be like. All those things you can capture in Growth Day under the monthly whole life assessment. It's under the life scores section. Okay, clear targets. So simple. Every teacher is probably talking about this. Okay, you want a dream? What is it? What are you doing there? And what are you feeling or experiencing there? What are you doing there? What are you feeling or experiencing there? Just real, clear definitions, Real clear descriptions. I love as a high performance coach, I'm always focused on the deliverables. Okay, what are you doing in that dream? What are you specifically doing? Creating or contributing? Like specifically every day or every week, what's it like? Paint the picture for me. And I like to do that because it's not a hope now, it's an action. Oh, famous author. What's the deliverable? Book articles, you know, newsletters, social media. Oh, those are things you're doing to input into the dream the experience that you'll get along the way. Awesome. But almost experiences.
Luck.
Okay, you're gonna experience it, but like, be in action. Be in action. Now, these two things compared. I'm sorry. Together you can see the power. If we can appreciate and scale what's working and feeling it and internalizing it, and we can be purposely doing and delivering into the dream. Everything changed.