How To Remember Your Goals

**Sensei** · 06-22-2014 09:54 AM

So... I think that this should help most people that are needing help with goals. I am not great, but I am getting better and better with leaps and bounds. I have about 7-14 LDs a week right now, and I remember my goals in like... 70% of them.

I started LDing a couple years ago (my lucidversary thread: http://www.dreamviews.com/attaining-...00-lucids.html) and I have had big issues with remembering goals. I would become lucid and great amounts of control after practice, but I was remembering my goals in like 10% of my dreams. This was annoying because all of my goals are things that take a lot of LDs to complete and I needed a change. I started looking at the dreams that I remembered goals and analyzing them.

In every dream that I remembered goals it would go something like this:
I realize that I am dreaming. I stop and either RC or look around. I am standing still and start remembering my goals. I pick one and go for it.

It doesn't matter where I am at, or what I see, this is what the dream entails. Not much help right? It seems random, but one thing is different than LDs that I normally had. I stopped and stood still for a bit, sometimes I would just walk slowly and look at the scenery. I started looking at this as something to bring into my every day routine. Instead of just "I'm dreaming" (Or "dream" as it is shortened now), I connected the thought to slowing down. I don't have to literally slow down, because my technique and experience has taught me that it isn't what you do throughout the day that goes into your dreams, it is what goes through your mind, and visual stimuli is one of the least, unless attention is paid to it.

So I also put it at the top of my goals list, and it worked... kind of. I started slowing down in almost every dream, but I didn't remember my goals. I was a little ticked, until one morning i woke up and realized something, I couldn't remember my goals in waking. I checked my goals list on my phone and remembered the SAO menu and fighting.
So I have to at least have other goals in mind enough to bring it up at any time of day.

This is helpful for becoming lucid as well, because normally people have an inkling that they are dreaming, if they slow down, they will become lucid.

Simple enough right?
Slow down is now your top goal
You have to be able to remember your second goal at any time of day

Good luck, if you have any questions, ask. If you succeed or fail, you should report here as well. It took a good month for it to start succeeding, so if you come back with a fail story before then, I won't be happy with the effort

.

**Sivason** · 06-22-2014 10:47 AM

Thanks for sharing this. Very sound principles. If you want to do a dream task you do need it to be clear in your mind and memory while awake. I will repeat a goal over and over through out the day inside, until it happens in a dream.
The slowing down part makes great sense too. Too often people start rushing about and do not stabilize or just watch for a moment.

**Kaiern9** · 06-22-2014 02:21 PM

Lets see if this helps

**Sageous** · 06-22-2014 04:37 PM

Excellent tip, Sensei!

I would go even further, though, and say that perhaps there should be no more than 2 goals, including the top goal. If you have only one goal in a given week (or month) it becomes much easier to think about, prioritize, and work thoroughly into your memory during waking life. I have never seen a need to pile goals on top of each other -- there will be other weeks to try other stuff.

Regardless, though, it's amazing how something this simple falls through the cracks of people's LD development, so it was great you shared!

**Sensei** · 06-22-2014 04:59 PM

@sivason
Thanks! I am glad that you like it! When I tried to think of a task and repeat it all day everyday, I might do the task, but not always lucidly. If I was on a hot streak of lucidity, I could spend the time in the day to get goals. I think that people with a more calm demeanor have an easier time with goals.

@ kaiern, don't forget to report back your progress.

@sageous
Thanks! It is harder to have less goals when you are starting out because there is so much stuff you want to do! After getting more and more LDs, it gets easier to pick goals and know which ones that you really want to do. I think that this is a problem for most beginners. I do like the idea of having only 2 goals though. Slow down! And then pull up my menu. :3

It is the fundamentals that get people lucid, not some crazy "I slept on both my hands and drank 72 oz of coffee before bed and got lucid" tech. The first thing that every RC tutorial tells you is to slow down and think about dreams. The RC itself is a physical representation of what should be going on in your head. Slowing down is powerful.

**Sageous** · 06-22-2014 05:25 PM

^^ Agreed. Slowing down is a major, and regularly ignored, factor in successful LD'ing (or successful anything, for that matter)... I do hope people pay attention to you!

I suggested one goal at a time, after your primary goal of "slow down" of course, because of the fact that folks new to LD'ing are so excited and want to do everything NOW. You are probably correct in noting that curbing -- or choosing from -- multiple goals can be difficult. But at the same time, understanding a need to hold yourself to one or two goals right from the start might help beginners prioritize their efforts and learn to exercise some patience. I am often troubled or bemused (depending on my mood, I guess) by member's signatures that list multiple goals... to stack up so many goals at once is to diminish each one, I think, and make it that much harder to achieve any. Which, I suppose, makes this thread even more important!

**~Dreamer~** · 06-22-2014 08:04 PM

I mentioned this exact thing to CanisLucidus recently!
I am usually great at remembering my goals, but I had a lucid dream recently where I got really caught up with the previous non-lucid goals, and wasted all my LD time trying to change my clothes so my armpits wouldn't smell, haha.

I was reading CL's DJ and saw that he often gets focused on non-lucid goals during LDs. I noticed that he generally starts doing activities immediately after becoming lucid in DILDs, and I realised that this is what I had done differently in my recent LD.

In the vast majority of my dreams, I spend the first 10-30 seconds being still, doing a nose plug RC, and keeping it plugged while I breathe deeply and try to remember my goals. This grounds me in the LD and helps me to let go of any irrational thoughts/feelings I had during the previous non-lucid dream.
My goals generally come to me pretty quickly this way, so I've made it a habit to start every LD with a few moments of stillness.

Great thread, Sensei, I think this is super important!

**ThreeCat** · 07-19-2014 05:11 PM

Great thread, Sensei. I am running against this problem a lot, recently -- for whatever reason, as my LD count has increased, my ability to mindfully interact with dream phenomenon has steadily declined. Time to slow down

**Mzzkc** · 07-28-2014 01:25 AM

Don't want to hijack the thread, but if anyone is interested I've got some cool tech (along these lines) which gave me a near 100% success rate back when I was still actively pursuing goals and stuff. It's super elegant, but revolves around waking-life schema manipulation, so I can understand if folks don't want to get into that discussion. XP

It's also sorta shortcutty, which kinda goes against the spirit of this thread.