428: Stop Setting Goals — They’re Boring: It’s Time to Dream Again for Real Personal Growth

Kevin Lowe: Yes, the thing that we all thought was reserved for children.

Kevin Lowe: No, that's the problem, Is that we've forgotten about our dreams. We've forgotten about the things that really and truly matter, what our North Star should be. And inside of today's episode.

Kevin Lowe: We're going to have you dreaming again. Now, I'm going To promise three specific takeaways by the end of today's episode.

Kevin Lowe: First, I want to give you relief.

Kevin Lowe: Relief from the judgment that you carry with you.

Kevin Lowe: The anxiety that you're loaded with headed into the new year.

Kevin Lowe: I want to eliminate all of that. Second, I want to give you a completely new way To think about.

Kevin Lowe: Planning out your year.

Kevin Lowe: Instead of focusing on goals and resolutions, instead, figuring out how to allow your dreams to guide your way.

Kevin Lowe: And third, I want to give you a simple framework to help you reconnect with Those dreams that.

Kevin Lowe: Maybe you've forgotten about. Maybe when I ask You the simple question.

Kevin Lowe: Of what are your dreams and you don't have an answer, Well, that framework is going to help you figure it out. We're going to break it down, simplify it, because I want you to leave today's episode feeling encouraged, feeling inspired, motivated, like, you know what?

Kevin Lowe: This is going to be my year because I am dreaming again. So my friend, That is what is inside of today's 428th episode of Grit, Grace, and Inspiration.

Kevin Lowe: But real quick, before we get there.

Kevin Lowe: In case we have not met, my name is Kevin Lowe.

Kevin Lowe: I am the creator and host of Grit, Grace, and Inspiration.

Kevin Lowe: But more specifically, I like to say I'm just another guy on this journey of life.

Kevin Lowe: Trying to figure It out along the way.

Kevin Lowe: Now, my mission Is to use what I've gone through, which I unexpectedly woke up from a life-saving surgery back when I was 17 to.

Kevin Lowe: Be left completely blind. Yes, newsflash, if you didn't know that I was blind, Now you do.

Kevin Lowe: I have been blind now for over 22 years.

Kevin Lowe: And to be honest, my whole mission in life is to just use what I've gone through.

Kevin Lowe: To use the lessons I've learned to hopefully be a benefit to you.

Kevin Lowe: That's what I want. It's just to use what I've gone through to make a difference in someone else's life.

Kevin Lowe: So my friend, that's what I'm here for. If you're out for it, well then, welcome.

Kevin Lowe: Along for the ride.

Kevin Lowe: This is episode 428 of Grit, Grace, and Inspiration.

Kevin Lowe: Welcome back to Grit, Grace, and Inspiration, the podcast that helps you grow through what you go through, one honest conversation at a time.

Kevin Lowe: My friend, it is the beginning of the year.

Kevin Lowe: We are only two weeks into 2026, and all the rage right now is what is your New Year's resolution?

Kevin Lowe: What is your goal for the year?

Kevin Lowe: Well, my friend, you know what the difference is between a goal and a New Year's resolution?

Kevin Lowe: A New Year's resolution is just a goal with nicer clothes. Yes, there's that saying.

Kevin Lowe: You can put Lipstick on a pig.

Kevin Lowe: But it's still a pig.

Kevin Lowe: And so you can fancy up your New Year's resolution however you want.

Kevin Lowe: But at the end of the day, it's just another goal. We're just goal setting, not for the short term, But instead for the entire year, wrapped into one single idea.

Kevin Lowe: Concept. Maybe it's a single word, A theme.

Kevin Lowe: I have done that myself. Or maybe it's something way more specific.

Kevin Lowe: But any way you look at it, it's basically just another goal.

Kevin Lowe: Today, we are not goal setting.

Kevin Lowe: We are not setting New Year's resolutions. We are dreaming. And the reason we are dreaming, The reason I feel this is so important, It's the reason why I've switched focus from the idea of setting goals, New Year's resolutions.

Kevin Lowe: Is that when Life happens, when life gets in the way, when things that we thought were a guarantee.

Kevin Lowe: When things that we thought were essential, Or maybe we're just always there.

Kevin Lowe: When those things are taken away, you know what's left? It's the dreams we have.

Kevin Lowe: It's our faith.

Kevin Lowe: It's our family. It's our dreams, our ideas.

Kevin Lowe: Those are what are left. Those are what truly matter in life.

Kevin Lowe: And so today we're focusing On the aspect.

Kevin Lowe: Of dreaming.

Kevin Lowe: Now, real quick, before we dive into the heart of this topic, I do want to encourage you that I have created a free resource that is made just for you.

Kevin Lowe: And it's called the Grit, Grace and Inspiration Life Guide. I basically went through our episode catalog, picked out a few of the best episodes that I felt could be a benefit to you.

Kevin Lowe: And put them together in a really Beautiful PDF document.

Kevin Lowe: That you can download. Now, I know PDF document, It sounds lame, but I'm telling you, it's useful.

Kevin Lowe: I got it broken down into what you might be going through, struggling with, need help with. And I have it narrowed Down to a few episodes that are going to be able to help you out.

Kevin Lowe: So please be Sure to click the link at the top of today's show notes, and that will get you access to the Grit, Grace, and Inspiration Life Guide, all.

Kevin Lowe: Designed to help you Make this year the best year ever.

Kevin Lowe: Okay, now back to the idea of dreaming.

Kevin Lowe: So we've gotten it out of our system, this idea of needing a goal or a New Year's resolution, And instead, we're focusing on dreaming.

Kevin Lowe: And the reason Why I believe dreaming is so vitally important is the simple fact that dreams aren't practical.

Kevin Lowe: Rarely are they realistic, but the truth is, is they're magnetic.

Kevin Lowe: They give us excitement in our life.

Kevin Lowe: They give us direction.

Kevin Lowe: They give us hope.

Kevin Lowe: And my friend, hope is one of the most powerful tools any of us can use.

Kevin Lowe: Hope for a better tomorrow. Hope for a better year.

Kevin Lowe: And if we need to have something to aim for, it should be a dream, not a goal.

Kevin Lowe: A goal is too little. It's too small. A New Year's resolution, an idea for the year.

Kevin Lowe: It's limiting. A dream is massive.

Kevin Lowe: It's big.

Kevin Lowe: It is exactly the kind of thing that we should be aiming for, That should be directing us forward. It's the big picture.

Kevin Lowe: If you're putting together A jigsaw puzzle, do you just want to be shown a section of what the picture looks like?

Kevin Lowe: Or do you want to see the entire picture so that you know what you're building?

Kevin Lowe: So you understand what it's supposed to look like. Of course, you want to see the whole thing.

Kevin Lowe: You don't just want to see a little Piece of it. So today, we're talking about dreaming big, big dreams, not little dreams.

Kevin Lowe: We're not putting restrictions on these dreams. We're going big because this is the direction for not just this year.

Kevin Lowe: But maybe for the rest of your life, or at least Until that dream is either fulfilled or no longer fits.

Kevin Lowe: Understanding that dreaming can.

Kevin Lowe: Seem a little bit Daunting if you've not allowed yourself to dream lately.

Kevin Lowe: Well, I want to get real and honest with you and give you some examples of some.

Kevin Lowe: Of my own Dreams.

Kevin Lowe: My own dream list. Yes.

Kevin Lowe: Before I even thought about creating this podcast episode, I actually did this very exercise for myself.

Kevin Lowe: I sat down and I really got real on what are some of my big dreams.

Kevin Lowe: And so I'm going to share them with the hope that you understand they're just my own dreams.

Kevin Lowe: I don't want them to influence what your dreams are.

Kevin Lowe: I hope you don't judge me in.

Kevin Lowe: Thinking that my Dreams are lame or boring.

Kevin Lowe: They're my dreams.

Kevin Lowe: And because it's my podcast and I like to be real and honest with you, I'm going to share them with you.

Kevin Lowe: So the first thing that I have on my big dream list is traveling across the United States in an RV.

Kevin Lowe: Yes, nothing glorious, nothing amazing. I'm not talking about a.

Kevin Lowe: Trip around the World, which, yeah, there's a lot of places around the world I want to visit.

Kevin Lowe: But one of my Big dreams is literally to just take however long it takes and get to explore this country that I live in.

Kevin Lowe: I live here in Florida. I want to Go to places I've never gone before to experience parts of this very country I live in that.

Kevin Lowe: I call my own.

Kevin Lowe: I want to get to experience them. And I feel like the best way to do it is traveling by car, staying at campgrounds around the country.

Kevin Lowe: My second dream is I.

Kevin Lowe: Want to have Enough success in my life, that I can financially support my family.

Kevin Lowe: Specifically thinking about my parents, even my sister. They've all done so much for me. They've given me everything.

Kevin Lowe: After going blind, everything in my world changed.

Kevin Lowe: And not only do I deal with blindness, but I have Other medical issues that I deal with.

Kevin Lowe: And life isn't easy. There's been times I've been in the hospital, in the ICU.

Kevin Lowe: My family didn't know if I would even make it. and they've stayed by my side every single step Of the way.

Kevin Lowe: And so, yeah, on my big dream list, I would love to be able to find enough success in my endeavors.

Kevin Lowe: Right now, my endeavor is aimed at public speaking as an inspirational speaker. I want to be able to Support them financially so that they don't have to worry about what the future holds.

Kevin Lowe: Third on my list of dreams and goals.

Kevin Lowe: In no specific order, mind you, is I want to get married.

Kevin Lowe: Yes, I have dreams of being married, Of having a family.

Kevin Lowe: Now, I don't know if that Means I actually will ever have.

Kevin Lowe: Children of my own, But I at least want to have a wife.

Kevin Lowe: I want to have a family, Whether maybe she already has kids. Maybe, I don't know, adopting kids. I don't know.

Kevin Lowe: But right now, I feel like first I need to start with a wife, and then that could turn into a marriage if we can go from there.

Kevin Lowe: Number four on my list of big dreams is just something totally out of the blue and just kind of fun. I thought, you know what?

Kevin Lowe: After something as serious as talking about marriage, we need something fun.

Kevin Lowe: And I would love to get to fly on a private jet, you know, like the rock stars do.

Kevin Lowe: How cool would that be?

Kevin Lowe: And my last little dream on my big dream list is I would love to get to be a guest on a morning talk show.

Kevin Lowe: I grew up watching The Today Show.

Kevin Lowe: Or Good Morning America, and I don't know exactly what it would look like, What we would be talking about.

Kevin Lowe: I would love to Get to be a guest on one of those shows. I actually, as a kid, always thought that it would be an amazing career to.

Kevin Lowe: Be the host on one of these Morning talk shows. So that, again, went on my big dream list.

Kevin Lowe: Again, like I said, some of these dreams maybe seem like they could happen.

Kevin Lowe: Some of them seem a little outrageous.

Kevin Lowe: But they're all deeply meaning and personal to me. And that's why I'm sharing them, because I want to be sure that you understand what I'm talking about here.

Kevin Lowe: This isn't just for pretend, For play.

Kevin Lowe: No, I actually want you to Really get serious.

Kevin Lowe: And think, what do I truly want out of my life? What do I want to happen?

Kevin Lowe: Maybe you have big dreams in your career.

Kevin Lowe: Maybe you have big dreams In your personal life. I want you to think about what you truly want out of life. Not just this year.

Kevin Lowe: But out of the rest of your time here on Earth. None of us know how long we're here for.

Kevin Lowe: So it's up to us to be sure that every day we truly do what we can to live it out loud.

Kevin Lowe: So now after sharing my big dream list, let's get down to yours.

Kevin Lowe: But maybe you don't know what your dreams are.

Kevin Lowe: Well, that's what we're going to help you figure out right now.

Kevin Lowe: I want to make this as simple as possible. And to do so.

Kevin Lowe: I want you to break down your life into four quadrants, Four sections. The first section that we're going to focus on is travel.

Kevin Lowe: Yeah, baby, I am all about travel.

Kevin Lowe: Heck, I was a travel agent for like seven years before I ever started this podcast.

Kevin Lowe: So if fear, if money, if logistics, if common sense was not.

Kevin Lowe: On the table, what would you love to do in terms of travel?

Kevin Lowe: Where would you love to go? What would you love to do? Would you maybe love To do a hot.

Kevin Lowe: Air balloon over the Serengeti at sunrise?

Kevin Lowe: Maybe you have dreams of getting to see the penguins in Antarctica.

Kevin Lowe: Maybe you would just love to go on a cruise, to let loose, to just hang out in the Caribbean for a week.

Kevin Lowe: What are your dreams, your big dreams in relation to traveling?

Kevin Lowe: Section number two, relationships.

Kevin Lowe: What would healthy, fulfilling, Meaningful relationships look like in your life? Are you looking to meet somebody that you might hope like me could become your spouse one day?

Kevin Lowe: Or maybe could you just really use some friends? Your friend situation is looking a little bleak here lately.

Kevin Lowe: What is it for you?

Kevin Lowe: What goals do you have in relation to relationships?

Kevin Lowe: Your involvement with other people?

Kevin Lowe: So section number three in this little piece of our goals is your career.

Kevin Lowe: And I guess what I would ask You here is.

Kevin Lowe: Are you happy in your career?

Kevin Lowe: Is it fulfilling you? Is it giving you the lifestyle that you want?

Kevin Lowe: Or is it maybe Making life a little too restrictive?

Kevin Lowe: Are you not making enough money To do the things that you want to do? And I guess if it isn't checking those boxes.

Kevin Lowe: What would you like to do? What did you think That you wanted to do as a child?

Kevin Lowe: A lot of Times when we're not sure.

Kevin Lowe: If we go Back to what we thought about as a child, sometimes that can be a great starting point.

Kevin Lowe: Now, I get it.

Kevin Lowe: Sometimes it can be a little no longer applicable because maybe as a kid, we were into one specific thing.

Kevin Lowe: I know for myself, I grew up wishing to be a professional dirt bike rider.

Kevin Lowe: Obviously, going blind definitely hindered that dream from ever happening.

Kevin Lowe: But again, it is a starting point if you're having a Little bit difficulty. If maybe you're not in a point in your life where you are happy in your career.

Kevin Lowe: Maybe you need to start dreaming a little.

Kevin Lowe: Thinking back to.

Kevin Lowe: What some of those Dreams were as a kid.

Kevin Lowe: What you wrote down in fifth grade that you were going to be when you grew up. And then our Fourth quadrant is your personal health.

Kevin Lowe: And you can do That both physical health and mental health.

Kevin Lowe: A way to think about this is, who is the version of you that you wish you could be? Is there maybe things Happening in life that.

Kevin Lowe: Have you not laughing as much? That has you not getting out and doing things As much with.

Kevin Lowe: People, with friends?

Kevin Lowe: Is it because of either stresses and anxieties?

Kevin Lowe: Is it due to own physical limitations? Maybe for you, You wish you were healthier.

Kevin Lowe: More grounded, more present.

Kevin Lowe: The fact is true is you.

Kevin Lowe: Don't need all the Answers. You don't need to know how you're going to get there, how to achieve it.

Kevin Lowe: What I want you to do is start dreaming. What do you wish for yourself?

Kevin Lowe: What do you want out of your life?

Kevin Lowe: I want you to write it down.

Kevin Lowe: I want you to get clear on all four of these areas of your life and create your big dream list.

Kevin Lowe: Again, emphasis on big.

Kevin Lowe: These are big dreams, Not little dreams, not little goals.

Kevin Lowe: These are dreams, the big stuff, the things that you think will never happen.

Kevin Lowe: That is exactly what goes on this list.

Kevin Lowe: Now, the whole reason we're doing this is, well, to focus on making this the best year ever.

Kevin Lowe: Guiding you forward by having a true North Star, which is your dreams, Not just little goals or New Year's resolutions.

Kevin Lowe: And when we allow our dreams to lead the way, This is what happens. The decisions you make.

Kevin Lowe: They're guided by a vision, not pressure.

Kevin Lowe: Your days, the actions you take.

Kevin Lowe: They feel meaningful.

Kevin Lowe: They have purpose behind them.

Kevin Lowe: You get to wake up in the morning, Feel excited because you are chasing after your dreams. You get to start being excited again.

Kevin Lowe: Yes, my friend, feeling excited. I believe That is a secret.

Kevin Lowe: Ingredient to life that we are all missing so much of the time, is simply being excited.

Kevin Lowe: We forget about the joy of excitement.

Kevin Lowe: Again, we think of that as something for children, for people who don't have the kind of responsibilities that you have.

Kevin Lowe: No, my friend, Excitement is something that you need to have. You have to have in your life.

Kevin Lowe: And by you starting today, on getting clear on your big dreams, That is going to help give you excitement in life again.

Kevin Lowe: And my friend, that alone is going to help to make this year like no other.

Kevin Lowe: So my friend, what I'm here to Tell you as.

Kevin Lowe: I wrap up today's episode is the simple truth. If you've been Allowing each year to start with a New Year's resolution.

Kevin Lowe: If you've been moving forward through the year by setting goals, I encourage you at this point in time, whether you're listening to this episode Right when it comes out.

Kevin Lowe: Here at the start of the new year, or maybe it's on down the line, Start today to start dreaming again, to get out a piece of paper, to bust out a Word doc on the computer.

Kevin Lowe: And write down your big dreams for your life.

Kevin Lowe: Again, if they seem far-fetched and like they'll never happen.

Kevin Lowe: Then that means That they deserve a spot on this list.

Kevin Lowe: I am encouraging you to create your big dream list.

Kevin Lowe: It is going to be the thing that guides you forward and that has you creating the life.

Kevin Lowe: That you've always Wished you could have. So my friend, let us make today be the day that we all commit to start dreaming again.

Kevin Lowe: All thanks to this idea of ditching the New Year's resolution, saying adios to goal setting.

Kevin Lowe: How lame, and instead start dreaming and dreaming big.

Kevin Lowe: I'm your host, Kevin Lowe, and this was another episode of Grit, Grace, and Inspiration.

Kevin Lowe: My friend, if there is somebody in your life who you think really needs to hear this message.

Kevin Lowe: Well, please be sure to share today's episode with them.

Kevin Lowe: Tell them grit, grace, and inspiration, they are doing something radical.

Kevin Lowe: They are skipping the New Year's resolution and jumping right into the stuff that truly matters, like dreaming once again.

Kevin Lowe: My friend, until next week, get out there and make that big dream list.