Knowing, and reminding other people of the benefits of reimagining (and of movement and sleep and mindfulness and…) does not allow you (or me!) to reap the benefits of doing those things. I need to do them.
So it was a powerful moment recently when Sarah Kent invited me to describe one of my dreams to her in 30 minutes. It’s part of a project called Dreamworks. (She does more interviews than she has time to post, so they get posted by random draw, anonymously…so I’d invite you to look for mine, but I’ll be looking for it too!)
Do you have a dream you could talk about for half an hour? It’s a harder question than you might expect — I’d invite you to sit with it for a moment.
One of Sarah’s early instructions was for me to pick just one dream to talk about. That parameter might be harder for some of us than thinking of a dream in the first place.
I came away from the experience with four memorable reminders:
- Being listened to, uninterrupted except for by gentle, encouraging and perceptive questions, is POWERFUL! So let me make a plug here for coaching. And for being a participant, especially if you are someone who usually acts as the coach. It is a gift to be well heard.
- Dreams can often have a “now and not yet” quality to them. They don’t have to be in the distant or will-never-happen future — they can be actively prepared for and worked on now.
- Dreams can be fun and profound at the same time.
- Speaking a dream out loud to someone else brings it into sharper focus and accelerates your progress toward it.
The dream I chose to talk to Sarah about had to do with building strong relationships between (and not just with) my children and grandchildren — which included, in the latter case, those born and not yet born. Making that dream a reality has been underway for years, in very practical ways (i.e. build a cottage they love to visit), but it’s also one that will play out into the future, likely well after I’m gone. And it feels both delightful and significant.
Our conversation then meandered into a motif that has shown up for me in many ways throughout my life: midwifery. I’m not a midwife in the clinical sense, but I am increasingly seeing my work (paid and unpaid) as sharing similar qualities. That perception was accelerated by a very brief but memorable exchange I had with someone a few years ago. I said something like, “I always thought I’d be a midwife…” and she responded with, “Oh, but you already are!” And that spontaneous reframing has made a remarkable difference in how I understand what I do, as a parent, grandparent, coach, entrepreneur and strategic advisor. Never underestimate the power of your encouraging words!
What might the takeaways of this exercise in imagination be for you today? Do you need to articulate a dream? Be more specific in choosing one to actively work towards? Create an opportunity to describe it to someone else so that you build momentum in realizing it? Reframe your thinking around it?
Let this be your “Oh, but you already are!” moment.