The 100 Dreams Exercise: A Permission Slip to Want More
Feb 26, 2025
The 100 Dreams Exercise
What if you stopped shrinking your life to fit your fears — and started expanding it to match your soul?
Let me ask you something.
When was the last time you gave yourself full, unedited, unapologetic permission to dream?
Not the practical kind of dreaming. Not the "someday when I have more time / money / courage" kind. I mean the real kind — the kind that lights something up in you before your logical brain has a chance to talk you out of it.
For most of us, that kind of dreaming quietly slipped away somewhere between the responsibilities of adulthood and the voice in our head that learned to ask "but how?" before the dream even had a chance to breathe.
We were taught to be realistic.
To want what makes sense.
To keep our wishes small enough to seem safe.
And somewhere along the way, we forgot that our dreams were never meant to be small.
The 100 Dreams Exercise exists to change that.
It's one of my favorite tools — and one I return to again and again, personally and with clients — because it does something that very few exercises do: it gives your whole self permission to show up. Not just the practical you. Not just the responsible you. All of you. The one with the wild ideas and the quiet longings and the things you've never said out loud to anyone.
I love the way poet Chad Sugg puts it:
"I don't want to die with my magic still in me."
Neither do I. And I don't want that for you, either.
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So — What Is It, Exactly?
The 100 Dreams Exercise is exactly what it sounds like: you write down 100 things you want to do, be, experience, or have in your lifetime.
Not 10. Not 20. One hundred — because the magic really starts happening around dream number 40, when the easy, obvious ones are behind you and you have to go deeper.
That's when the real desires start surfacing. The ones you'd maybe forgotten about. The ones you've been quietly carrying for years. The ones that make you tear up a little as you write them down because you realize — oh. That one matters to me. That one really matters.
This isn't a to-do list. It's not a goal-setting spreadsheet. It's a conversation with your soul — a way of saying: I'm listening. Tell me what you want. All of it. I won't judge you. I won't immediately ask how. I'll just write it down and let it be real.
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Why This Exercise Works
Most of us have been operating with a very edited version of our desires — a highlight reel of what we think is reasonable to want. The 100 Dreams Exercise blows that open.
Here's what it does that nothing else quite replicates:
It expands your vision. You can't think your way into a bigger life from inside the same mental box. Writing 100 dreams forces you to stretch past your current reality — and that stretch alone is transformative.
It uncovers what's been hiding. When you have to fill a hundred lines, you start getting creative — and honest. Dreams you didn't even know were there begin to surface. That's not random. That's your intuition, finally getting a word in.
It reveals what truly matters. When you review your list, themes emerge. Values clarify. You start to see the shape of your life as you actually want it — which is essential information if you want to live with intention instead of default.
It becomes a compass. Your 100 dreams aren't just a list — they become a living document that guides your decisions, shapes your habits, and quietly realigns you with what you actually came here to do.
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How to Do It — A Step-by-Step Guide
There's no wrong way to do this — but there are a few things that make it more powerful. Here's how I recommend approaching it:
Create a sacred space for this.
This isn't a task to squeeze in between emails. Honor it. Light a candle. Put on music that moves you. Brew something warm. Let your nervous system know that this is a different kind of time — spacious, open, and just for you. You might even split it into two sessions so you have time to let ideas come to you in the in-between.
Put the inner editor on notice.
The voice that says "that's not realistic" or "you'd never actually do that" — it does not get a vote here. This exercise only works if you let yourself write freely, without filtering, without justifying. If something excites you — even if it feels wildly out of reach — write it down. Especially then.
Let every area of your life speak.
Sometimes we only dream in one lane — career, or travel, or finances — and forget to invite the rest of life to the table. Let yourself roam. Consider what you want across all of it:
Career & Business — the work that lights you up, the impact you want to make
Financial Freedom — what abundance means in your life, the security and generosity you want to create
Personal Growth — languages, skills, certifications, the version of yourself you're growing into
Travel & Adventure — the places that call to you, the experiences that make life feel wide open
Health & Vitality — what it means to feel truly alive in your body
Love & Relationships — the connections, traditions, and memories you want to build
Creativity & Joy — the things that feed your spirit and make you feel most like yourself
Giving Back & Legacy — the difference you want to make, the mark you want to leave
Spirituality & Inner Life — your connection to something greater, your deepest sense of purpose
Reflect on what emerged.
When your list is complete, read it slowly. Notice what lights you up the most. Look for patterns — the themes, the values, the through-lines. These are your truest clues. Not what sounds impressive or what you think you should want. What actually makes your heart quicken when you read it.
Let a few call you forward.
You don't have to work toward all 100 at once — this isn't about overwhelm, it's about clarity. Choose two or three that feel most alive right now, and begin. Not perfectly. Not with a full plan. Just begin.
Keep it living.
Post it somewhere you'll see it. Check things off with joy. Add new ones as life evolves. Return to it at the start of each year as part of your reflection ritual. This document isn't a relic — it's meant to grow with you.
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When Dreams We'd Forgotten Come Back
I worked with a woman who told me, early in our coaching, that she wasn't really a "big dreamer." She was practical. Efficient. She prided herself on being grounded. Dreams felt self-indulgent to her — a little like a luxury she didn't quite deserve.
I asked her to do this exercise anyway.
She came back to our next session quieter than usual. She told me that somewhere around dream number sixty, she'd written: learn to paint. And then she sat back and stared at it for a long time, because she hadn't thought about painting since she was eleven years old. She'd loved it then — deeply — and had never once, as an adult, given herself permission to return to it.
She signed up for a beginner's watercolor class the following week. She told me later it was one of the best decisions she'd made in years.
Not because painting was going to change her career or make her famous. But because it reminded her that she was a whole person — not just a role, not just a function — with a rich inner life that deserved to be tended.
That is what this exercise gives you.
Not just a list. A remembering.
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The Voice That Will Try to Stop You
I want to name something, because I know it will show up for you.
At some point during this exercise — maybe around dream 30, maybe around 70 — a voice will arrive. It might sound like practicality. It might sound like wisdom. But what it will say is some version of: this is silly. You should be more realistic. Who do you think you are?
That voice is not your truth. It's your conditioning.
It learned to keep you safe by keeping you small — and it means well. But it is not qualified to decide what you're allowed to want.
You are not here to dream small.
You are here to find out what you're actually made of.
So when that voice shows up — and it will — acknowledge it kindly, set it aside, and keep writing.
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Before You Begin — A Few Questions to Sit With
If you want to drop in even deeper before you start your list, try journaling on one or more of these first:
If I knew I couldn't fail — and no one was watching — what would I want?
What dreams did I have as a child or young woman that I stopped believing were possible?
What have I been telling myself I want "someday" — and what would it mean to make that someday now?
When I imagine looking back on my life at the very end of it — what do I most want to have done, felt, seen, and been?
You have one life. One extraordinary, unrepeatable life.
Not a life that happens to you while you're waiting for the right moment. A life you actually design — with intention, with courage, and with the full force of everything you are.
Your magic is not meant to stay inside you. Let it out. ✦
With love, MeganThe Mindset Reset is where we take everything on your list — the dreams, the desires, the life you're ready to build — and start doing the inner work that actually makes it possible. If you're curious, I'd love to tell you more.
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