I love daydreaming but I feel a little guilty doing it.
According to wikipedia while daydreaming has long been derided as a lazy, non-productive pastime, daydreaming can be constructive in some contexts. There are numerous examples of people in creative or artistic careers, such as composers, novelists and filmmakers, developing new ideas through daydreaming. Similarly, research scientists, mathematicians and physicists have developed new ideas by daydreaming about their subject areas.
As a kid I was always lost in my dreams, ok I'll admit that when I was 13 it was mostly about how Paul from the Beatles would fall in love with me some day! And there are times when I've been caught not paying full attention when my husband is telling me something for the third time. But professionally I get some of my most creative, imaginative thoughts while daydreaming, and I see it as a valuable tool for coming up with fresh marketing ideas for my clients.
And as it turns out, there is some interesting research to back that up.
“Daydreaming is important, neuroscientists have found, because it allows the brain to make novel associations and connections between unrelated ideas; and the freedom to drift allows our brains to imagine abstract, highly imaginative things. As any creative person knows, these are exactly the kinds of states of mind that lead to sessions of brilliant creativity, where ideas can come as fast as you can write them down.” - Jonah Lehrer, The Boston Globe
Not a natural daydreamer and want to know how to start, here are some tips from Rick Goodfriend a corporate certified speaker on communication strategies.
1: Imagine what need or value you would enjoy having satisfied today. (Example: I need more time to complete my project.)
2: Daydream for a few seconds or longer on a strategy that may meet this need. Example: ( I daydream that I will ask my coworker for assistance. He says yes and the job is complete in half the time.) Already I can feel a calm. Now I can decide if I want to use the solution or imagine a different one. Your creativity may flow bigger and faster with ideas..
In Summary: Take a minute or two and enjoy your daydreaming. You will feel more relaxed when you have finished.
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5 comments:
Hi Ann--
Thanks for the great post. Glad to see people are really beginning to appreciate this wonderful capacity instead of disparaging it and feeling guilty about it. Hope it's okay to say this....My book on the very topic was just released, Daydreams at Work: Wake Up Your Creative Powers.
If anyone wants to read more about it, please visit, www.DaydreamsAtWork.com
Thanks. Amy Fries
Hello fellow daydreamer, thanks for sharing Amy, I will definitely take a look at your site!
I love what Ann writes about a wandering, day-dreaming mind for unleashing creativity and agree wholeheartedly! I know there also are times to focus on your mission.
I have advised thousands of organizations and individuals from different sectors – business, non-profit, government – for close to four decades and have found that regardless of what need or problem they ask initially for my assistance in resolving almost always they have a more comprehensive need or larger problem than the specific issue they originally think. We often find that the key stakeholders of organizations – regardless of their size, length of existence or level of sophisticated expertise – lack a clear jointly-shared understanding of and adherence to their core mission. When we do a thorough analysis drilling deep into why they do what they do and connect that to the purest most central vision of their aspirations, we unearth and reveal their core mission. In some cases everyone implicitly already knew what it was but never had an explicit distillation of it. In others cases, we found that while people thought they were on the same page in fact they actually held wildly different views about their core mission. Either way, making clear what was murky or unarticulated then provides the framework against which everything else can be evaluated.
Does what we are doing, planning for or considering in any other area of our work advance our core mission? If so, how can we do more of that even more effectively? Conversely, does it distract us from achieving our core mission or even just pull us slightly off track? If the former, we should not be doing it at all, as it deters us from fulfilling our core mission; if the latter, we should make the adjustments needed to be aligned with our core mission. There are more questions we ask: Which elements of our core mission are absolutely inviolable so regardless of changing circumstances we would never abandon them? Which might be specific to a goal that if we achieve it or the need for it no longer exists, we could and possibly should modify as not all aspects of core mission are static?
Once you start operating from this core mission-centric, core mission-driven modus operandi, the guidelines for every decision and possible activity becomes clearer. Whether yours is a for- or a not-for profit organization, the first internal step is to get all on your team – from the CEO, COO, CFO, other senior managers and staff to the board and any other key stakeholders in your operation – to understand, agree with and abide by your core mission. Ideally, to reach this highly functional state, you engage all of those people in the process of formulating your core mission. This greatly increases the likelihood that they will be guided by it. The alternative approach of a small senior group – or worse, one individual like the CEO or board chair – making the decision and handing it down by fiat is less effective as true buy-in and ownership of your core mission by your full team is critical for its success. But, making “mission-driven, mission-centric” your mantra will make your mission work! If you'd like to read more on this go to http://blog.beCause.net
Amy - I checked out your great website. If you're interested, see my comment to Ann, - Nadine
PS: My company beCause Global Consulting www.because.net provides advisory services to foundations, corporations, governments, nonprofits and individuals on cause-related strategies, philanthropic initiatives and transformative organizational leadership. All of our work is designed to advance the organization’s mission and values. Recognized internationally for our proven expertise in effective strategic action plans, creative problem solving, innovative partnerships, insightful policy analysis and politically sensitive negotiations. For over three decades Hack has advanced the mission and values of individuals and organizations from all sectors, marrying vision with concrete actions. Her specialties include developing complex multi-sector strategic alliances in a globalized world; managing reputations in a socially-conscious society; and forging new presences in specific communities, whether by region or market segmentation.
Hi Nadine,
Thanks for your comments. The work you do is invaluable, I was presenting today in front of 60 non-profits educating them on branding on and off line and it is interesting how difficult it is for them to know how to reach out and share their mission.
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