The Power of Daydreaming

At various times in your life, you'll find that your dreams have deserted you. They've gone into hibernation or disappeared all together--daydreams of success or desire that fueled your motivation, or dreams and visions of a life that embodied your innermost authentic self. Read More

Lately I've been accused of "obsessing" about a pesky financial problem. Not a gigantic problem, but a source of ongoing irritation and minor conflict. At any rate, this financial quandry got into my mind, and I found myself waking up thinking about it, thinking about it while auto-piloting through my morning get-ready-for-work routine, and defaulting to it during random periods of mind wandering. It's common to default to thoughts that carry the most emotional punch, and this one was pulling anger triggers. Read More

Admit it. When do you get your best ideas? When you're sitting at your desk striving for an answer, or when you're doing something off-task like driving, walking, or puttering around the house? On the surface, daydreaming seems like the antithesis of "work," yet it's truly at the core of our most important type of productivity--creative problem-solving. That's why some of the most innovative companies in the world feature programs that give key employees the time and space to think creatively, i.e. daydream--Google offers a 20% program, 3M has a 15% program, and Gore & Associates (Gore-Tex, etc.) features "dabble time." All three companies credit these programs as the source of their most successful products. Read More

It's funny what cyclical creatures we are. Every year, I along with a zillion others pledge to do all kinds of righteous things in January, the New Year and season of fresh starts. Of course many of these cyclical goals spring from long-nurtured, long-held visions, fantasies, and daydreams of what we want to be. Whatever you daydream about-try to see the goal of the daydream and take note of how it motivates you. Read More

At least the two Northwest Airlines pilots who flew 150 miles past their appointed runaway didn't claim "daydreaming" as a distraction. Instead, they asserted that they were caught up in doing business on their laptops. Read More

The most dynamic and innovative people in any endeavor--business, science, athletics, politics, or the arts--are visionaries. And what exactly is a "vision?" At the end of the day I argue that a "vision" is just an upscale word for "daydream," and "visionary," an upscale word for daydreamer. . . . When people say they "dream" of being president or a billionaire or an artist or whatever it is they fantasize about--they are daydreaming those goals, literally envisioning them in their mind's eye. Read More

We daydream for a variety of reasons, and one reason is that daydreams give us hope and help us get through the rough and boring patches of life. This isn't a small thing. All of us face our challenging days, and without the capacity to envision a brighter future or new goals, life would be bleak indeed. Could it be that when the world goes flat and gray that our daydreams have ceased to work their magic and the world looks one-dimensional, without possibilities, without hope? Read More

We've all had the experience when we've been in an argument with someone and then mentally rehash the conversation in a daydream, fine-tuning and improving our performance. In the fantasized version, we undoubtedly make the perfect comeback remark or score the debate-winning point. Read More

To daydream or not to daydream . . . and why do we have to make that choice? Yet we get conflicting messages on this all the time. In the abstract, we tend to admire traits such as creativity and imagination, yet we're constantly told to focus, to live in the present moment and not think about the future or the past, to be mindful only of what is and not what could be. Read More