Success through effective dreaming.

Do you practice the habits of highly productive, creative thinkers?

Phil Parker DO Dip E Hyp Psyc NLP CMPNLP MBIH

 

When researchers (Dilts et al) began to investigate the process of creativity and problem solving, they identified some key habits that seemed to be shared by some very successful people.

 Walt Disney is a great example of this. He had a special strategy for being creative; he recognised and separated out the three different phases of creativity (dreaming, how to put it into practice and assessing for problems). He did this so clearly that he would spend, for instance, a whole day at a time just dreaming (he called this imagineering).

Just dreaming..

And nothing else.

 If he found himself starting to pick holes in or be critical of his ideas he’d stop and instead he’d remind himself that today was a dreaming day. Experience had taught him that even if this particular idea never came to fruition he knew that by just immersing himself fully into it, his mind would flow on to somewhere else, in a new direction that he might never have visited if he had critically stomped on that delicate idea to soon.

 

If you are not a happy with the word ‘dream’, just replace it with ‘imagine’ think’ ‘brainstorm’ ‘problem solve’ ‘guess’ etc.

 

I’m sure you can understand the benefits of such a process, and when you compare it to what most of us have been taught to do. You know,

1. We produce an idea
2. and then almost instantly swamp it with the weight of all the reasons why it can’t work, all the problems, and hard work it might entail
3. resign ourselves to not bothering with the impossible, unlikely or difficult
4. carry on as before, only a bit more hopeless

This is a great recipe for creating stagnation, frustration, and despondency, and tends to be contagious. If someone can’t realise their own goals and dreams they may be less likely to support others who are reaching for the stars.

 

 Using the above-mentioned “Disney strategy” of separating the elements of the thinking process so that they don’t pollute each other is a great step forward.

 

Asking yourself some of the following clear questions which free you the crushing and stifling effect of negative inner voices like “I can’t do that” will also allow you to dream freely.

Clear questions

1.        If I absolutely knew I couldn’t fail, that I would genuinely and totally succeed at whatever I did tomorrow, what would I do?

2.        If I was free from all the constraints that keep me from dreaming and creating, what would I dream of?

3.        If I could make mistakes and not get it right all the time, and if that was ok to do, what would I allow myself to dream?

4.        If I could dream things, knowing that just because I dreamed them didn’t mean I had to actually do them (this is called “the money back guarantee” question).

5.        If what I am going to do today was what I would like to leave behind as the sum of my life’s path, my epitaph, the summit of all my achievement …. what would I do today? And what would you do tomorrow?

 

 

 

Dreaming is just the first phase of the creative process, but without it projects and change will die on the vine.

Remember treat your dreams like little children, they need to be nurtured so that they can grow into all they can become.

You have no idea what you are truly capable of.

 

Phil Parker is based in London and works throughout the UK and Europe as a keynote speaker, executive coach, trainer, hypnotherapist, osteopath and healer. You can contact him at phil@hyp.no.com and visit the Communication and Change Consultancy at www.hyp.no.com to discover how they can help you and your organisation can become everything you can be.