why dumb goals might be exactly what you need

Why belief, direction, and trust come before strategy

Feb 03, 2026

For most of my life, I thought goals were supposed to sound sensible.

They were meant to fit neatly into your existing life.
Be realistic, responsible, explainable.

We’ve been taught to set goals using a very specific framework. SMART goals. Specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, time-bound. You’ve probably heard of them, and you’ve probably used them. I know I have.

But my husband wrote something on Substack recently that made me pause and look at my approach to goal setting differently.

The idea was simple:

Not everything in life needs to be clearly defined before it’s allowed to exist.

Some goals don’t arrive with timelines, spreadsheets, or a perfectly thought-out plan. Some start as a feeling. A pull. A knowing that you want more of something, even if you can’t fully explain how to reach it yet.

I think a lot of us know what we want, but hesitate to write it down because it feels premature. Like we’re not allowed to want something until we can explain how it would work.

But why not create crazy, aspirational goals with no solid plan? Why not start writing out all our big and dumb goals?

What the heck are dumb goals, you ask?

DUMB goals are actually a real framework, introduced by Brendon Burchard as a counterpoint to traditional SMART goals. And when I came across it, it honestly felt like permission to dream first.

Here’s what DUMB really means.

Dream-driven (D)

It starts with the dream. The life you want, the way you want to feel, the version of you you’re becoming.

Uplifting (U)

The goal should feel encouraging, not heavy. Something you want to move toward, even on low-energy days.

Method-friendly (M)

The vision stays the same, but the approach can change. There’s more than one way to get where you’re going, and this leaves room for flexibility instead of all-or-nothing thinking.

Behaviour-triggered (B)

It’s built around habits, not just outcomes. Small, repeatable actions that quietly add up over time.

So instead of forcing my goals into neat, responsible boxes this year, I wrote a list of goals that all feel DUMB. Each one rooted in a dream, motivating instead of demanding, flexible enough to evolve, and grounded in the habits I can actually show up for.

And honestly, that feels like a much more human way to move forward.

To be clear, SMART goals absolutely have their place. They’re useful, grounding, and necessary when you’re executing something concrete. But in a world that already feels structured, optimized, and rigid, sometimes what we need first isn’t more discipline, it’s more imagination. DUMB goals leave room for that. They let you dream before you decide how.

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I want to share a quick story about how I was setting DUMB goals long before I even realized that’s what I was doing.

A couple years ago, I wrote down a financial goal that, at the time, felt unattainable. Based on my main job alone, it wasn’t something I could logically map out or explain. If I had tried to approach it in a very traditional, SMART-goal way, I know exactly what I would’ve done. I would’ve started doing the math, googling all of the possible extra income streams I could implement, telling myself I needed to work more, push harder, add pressure.

But I didn’t do any of that.

I wrote the goal down and then… kind of left it alone.

Instead of chasing solutions, I kept doing the things that felt aligned. I kept writing. I kept following ideas that interested me. I stayed open, even when nothing about it felt strategic or guaranteed.

And over time, things started to stack. New platforms showed up. Different projects took shape. Opportunities came from directions I never would’ve thought to plan for when I first wrote that goal down.

When I set it, I had no idea how it would happen — or what it would turn into. And that’s the part that matters.

Like my husband wrote in his post, if you already knew how to get there, you’d already be there.

Maybe the point isn’t to have more detailed goals or better plans. Maybe it’s to stop shrinking what you want just because you don’t know the path yet.

Sometimes the most useful thing a goal can do is simply remind you which direction you want to face, and then trust yourself enough to keep looking that way.

Manifestation, is really just dumb goals

There’s a reason DUMB goals feel similar to manifestation, and it’s not because they’re mystical or unrealistic. It’s because they ask you to do something very specific: to clearly name what you want, believe that it’s possible for you, and then stop trying to control exactly how it’s supposed to happen.

In that way, a DUMB goal is almost like a prayer or manifestation. You’re declaring an intention and trusting that if you stay aligned with it, the path will eventually reveal itself in ways you couldn’t have planned in advance.

A lot of manifestation gets dismissed as “woo woo” because people assume it’s about wishing without action. But what it actually asks for is belief first, followed by alignment. When you allow yourself to want something and truly believe it’s possible, you start moving through the world differently. You make choices with a bit more openness. You follow curiosity instead of forcing outcomes. You stay available instead of gripping tightly to one version of how it’s supposed to work.

Why this works, without getting woo-woo

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What we often call manifestation is really just belief, attention, and behaviour interacting over time.

Our brains are constantly filtering information. We take in far more than we can consciously process, so the mind is always deciding what matters and what doesn’t. When you clearly name a goal, especially one you actually believe is possible, you change what your brain starts paying attention to.

Once a direction is set, you begin to notice things you would have skimmed past before. Ideas land differently. Certain conversations stand out. Opportunities feel easier to recognize, not because they suddenly appeared, but because they now register as relevant.

Belief also changes how you behave, often in really subtle ways. When something feels possible, you are more likely to take small actions without overthinking them. You stick with things longer. You experiment more freely. You make choices that align with the direction you have named, even when you are not consciously “working on” the goal.

Those behaviours add up.

Over time, results start to take shape in ways that can feel surprising when you look back, even though you were quietly aligning with them all along.

This is why DUMB goals work best when they are paired with trust instead of pressure. You are not asking yourself to work harder or prove anything. You are simply deciding what kind of life you are available for, and then living in a way that makes room for it.

You don’t need to know the path. You just need to stop facing the wrong direction.

How to Set a DUMB Goal

This is the part people usually get stuck on. They like the idea of DUMB goals, but immediately ask, okay, but how do I actually do this?

The biggest thing to understand is that DUMB goals are not meant to be engineered. They’re meant to be declared.

You don’t start with strategy. You start with honesty.

1. Start with the desire, not the plan (Dream-driven)

Instead of asking what should my goal be?, ask yourself:

What do I want more of in my life?
What feels out of reach, but keeps coming back?
What do I hesitate to write down because I don’t know how it would work?

This is where most people censor themselves. A DUMB goal ignores that instinct. You write the want as it is, even if it feels vague, ambitious, or slightly unreasonable.

“I want my life to feel expansive.”
“I want more freedom with my time.”
“I want to earn a five-figure month without needing to work around the clock.”
“I want a home with light, space, and enough room to grow into.”

That’s enough to start.

2. Make sure it lifts you, not pressures you (Uplifting)

A DUMB goal should feel like relief, not another thing to live up to.

If reading the goal makes you feel tense, behind, or inadequate, it’s probably been over-optimized. The right DUMB goal usually creates a sense of openness. It feels motivating in a quiet way — like something you’re moving toward, not something chasing you.

A good check is this:
Does this goal make me feel more like myself, or less?

3. Let the “how” stay flexible (Method-friendly)

This is the hardest part, especially if you’re type A (like myself) or used to planning.

With a DUMB goal, you don’t decide how it will happen upfront. You decide the direction, and you allow multiple paths to remain possible.

The moment you try to reverse-engineer it, most people get overwhelmed. They see how much more they’d need to do, how much research they’d need to do, how many unknowns there are — and they abandon the goal entirely.

DUMB goals skip that step.

You’re not committing to one method. You’re committing to staying oriented.

4. Anchor it to behaviour, not outcomes (Behavior-triggered)

This doesn’t mean turning the goal into a checklist. It means choosing one or two behaviours that face you in the right direction.

Not everything you need to do. Just something you can return to.

Writing consistently.
Creating before consuming.
Leaving space in your calendar.
Listening to your body instead of overriding it.

These behaviours aren’t guarantees. They’re signals, to yourself, that you’re taking your goal seriously without forcing it.

Maybe the shift isn’t about setting better goals or becoming more disciplined or finally “figuring it out.” Maybe it’s about allowing yourself to want something before you’re ready to explain it.

DUMB goals ask you to take yourself seriously at the desire stage, not just at the execution stage. They ask you to trust that what you’re drawn toward isn’t random, and that clarity doesn’t always come before movement. Sometimes it comes because of it.

When you declare a goal this way — as intention, as belief, almost as a prayer — you’re not asking for the outcome to be handed to you. You’re saying, this is the life I’m available for. And that changes how you move. What you notice. What you say yes to. What you quietly stop tolerating.

The path doesn’t reveal itself all at once.

It rarely does.

But direction has a way of doing its work in the background, shaping your days in small, almost unnoticeable ways until one day you realize your life looks different — not because you forced it to, but because you stayed oriented toward what mattered.

You don’t need to rush the knowing. You don’t need to justify the wanting. You just need to face the direction you believe in, and keep returning to it with trust.

Sometimes that’s enough to let the rest unfold.