Friday, November 16, 2007

Are you still dreaming?

My husband brought up this thought-provoking subject - Are you still dreaming?

Background
Matthew Kelly, founder and president of Floyd Consulting, was interviewed on Tom Peters' site about his newest book 'The Dream Manager'.

"The first time you ask people to list their dreams, they tend to put together a shopping list and a travel book. But, as they begin to live a little bit more and experience some of those dreams, they begin to ask, "What are my legacy dreams? What are my character dreams? What are my spiritual dreams? What are my adventure dreams? What are my creative dreams?" Those are the higher level dreams.

But it's important to recognize that a lot of people have stopped dreaming. And if they've stopped dreaming in their own life, good luck trying to get them to subscribe to a dream that you have for your organization. It's simply unreasonable to expect people to do something for your business that they are not willing to do for their own lives."

It got me thinking of my childhood dreams...
Photo by: SideShowMom

I dreamt of becoming a Pediatrician, (only to discover I couldn't stand the sight of blood). I also dreamt of a gum tree, because gum was my favorite candy. What could be better than picking gum off a tree whenever I wanted more? My mom helped me make this dream come true. Together we spent an entire afternoon scotch-taping sticks of Juicy Fruit gum (from an industrial sized carton) to the hanging leaves of the big tree in our backyard.I always dreamt of marrying a blond haired, blue eyed German - and we all know how that turned out.

On how to get back in touch with your dreams
"Sit down and put together a list of 100 dreams. It will be hard work at first, but take a look at the 12 areas: physical, emotional, intellectual, spiritual, psychological, material, professional, financial, creative, adventure, legacy, and character. Essentially, if you come up with eight dreams in each of those areas, you've got your list of 100 dreams.

If you simply write your list of 100 dreams, put it in a drawer, and never look at it ever again, that one experience is life changing.

The next step is to start a conversation with the people in your life about their dreams, whether it's your spouse, your children, or the people you work with. You have to be careful with that. It will freak them out if you spring it on them out of nowhere. To ease into it, try saying, "If there were no limits on time or money, where are seven places you'd love to go in the next seven years?" And then you both make a list and talk about it. See which ones match up and which ones are very different. I think that's an easy way to start that conversation because lots of people dream of traveling. I think it's a great way to ease into the conversation."

My dreams
My husband's post inspired me to make my own dream list.

Photo by: kajo55

Physical

Emotional

Intellectual Photo by: Anita Huang

Spiritual

Photo by: neloqua

Psychological Photo by: roto@rotoark.com

Material Photo by: michael.heiss

Professional Photo by: nickherber

Financial Photo by: mark sebastian

Creative Photo by: catharina102

AdventurePhoto by: Luba Roniss

LegacyPhoto by: setev

Character

So what are your physical, emotional, intellectual, spiritual, psychological, material, professional, financial, creative, adventure, legacy, and character dreams?

2 comments:

Sphincter said...

Those are some good questions. It wasn't that long ago when I realized that I was so busy getting through the day that I was blocking out thoughts about things-- like what makes me happy. I'm sure that sounds silly, but it's true. I think I'll try to do this one. Even if I just do it all by myself. Thanks for the nudge!

Trailhead said...

Great post. You've provoked my thoughts.