PPF Goal-Setting Framework
Define personal, professional, and financial targets across three horizons
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~days to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 100%
Dawson's PPF method divides goals into personal, professional, and financial buckets, then examines each bucket over one, three, and five years. Personal appears first, followed by professional and financial, so the plan does not begin with work or money in isolation. The short horizon encourages specificity, while the longer horizons force the person to describe who they want to become and what success would look like beyond the immediate year. Dawson says she has used these conversations with more than a thousand team members and business owners and has not encountered a goal outside the three buckets. That is her reported experience, not proof that the categories are exhaustive. The framework creates a planning grid; users still need a separate process to turn targets into scheduled action.
Origin
Dawson says the method transformed her life and that she rolled it out to thousands of people after personally conducting more than a thousand goal conversations.
Core principles
- 01Goals become clearer when separated into life domains
- 02Personal priorities come before professional and financial targets
- 03One-, three-, and five-year horizons expose different assumptions
- 04A future date will arrive whether or not it is planned
How to run it
- 1
Create the three buckets
Write personal, professional, and financial as separate sections. Keep personal at the top, matching Dawson's stated layout.
Pro tip Define each category before filling it so one goal is not duplicated across every section.
- 2
Set the one-year view
Describe success in each bucket one year from now. Use observable targets rather than broad descriptions of a better life.
Pro tip Include numbers where they genuinely clarify the target.
Watch out A target can be concrete without being realistic or desirable; test both.
- 3
Extend to three years
Repeat the exercise for the three-year horizon. Identify changes that require more than one annual cycle and note dependencies between the buckets.
- 4
Describe the five-year person
Project your age five years forward and describe the personal, professional, and financial reality you want then. Use the exercise to make an otherwise vague future more tangible.
Pro tip Ask who you must become, not only what you want to possess.
Watch out Treat the plan as revisable rather than a prediction.
- 5
Check the full grid
Review all nine cells together. Resolve obvious conflicts and identify goals that reinforce one another before creating an execution plan.
Watch out The transcript does not provide a cadence for reviewing or updating the grid.
In the wild
At age 32, Dawson projects herself to age 37 and describes wanting enough financial capacity to write a million-dollar charity cheque simply because she can. The statement turns a general desire for impact into a future financial target.
→ The five-year horizon links a financial goal to a personally meaningful use of money.
Common mistakes
Writing one vague wish list
Mixing every ambition together makes it harder to see which part of life the goal serves and how goals interact.
Stopping at the grid
PPF organises targets, but it does not replace scheduling, measurement, or regular review.
Is it for you?
Best for
It is best for people who need a simple starting structure for medium-term goal setting.
Not ideal for
It is not ideal as a complete execution system because the framework does not itself assign actions, owners, or review dates.
From the transcript
“The process is called personal goals, professional goals, and financial goals.”
“personal is at the top”
“one year, three year, and 5year”
From the episode
The Woman Who Makes Millionaires: Only 1% of People Do This! The PPF Framework Will 10x Your Income!