This may sound as crazy to you as it did to me, but there is gold waiting for us in our dreams. I will share a real business example in a moment.
It could be because I take Zyrtek allergy medicine this time of year, but my deep sleep and dreams are much cooler right now. Last weekend I was having a dream about our grand-daughter visiting, which has been very challenging this last year. I woke-up mid-dream and got up. Then, like I had learned in a college course, I went right back to bed and thought only about what was happening in the dream.
Bingo, before I knew it I was right back in the dream again. This time a cute little girl (not really our grand-daughter this time) looked at me, smiled, and said, “Okay, my Mama said I need to be nice to you because you’re the best we’re going to get for the next year.”
Really, I’m the best you’re going to get? Now, that was pretty funny.
My College Course Experience. In my senior year of college I had a friend suggest I take a course called Mental Hygiene. I remember thinking, “What a stupid name for a course, but sure, I need another elective.”
One thing I learned during the course was how we can use our dreams to be more creative and solve problems. Although I was skeptical at first, I learned very quickly, within about a week, that if you write-down details from your dreams (i.e. journal) you can begin to bring ideas or challenges into your dreams and work on them.
Photo is sample from B H & G website
A very important step, though, is to immediately write down details from the dreams because specific details are quickly forgotten, as I’m sure you’ve experienced. I have used paper from time to time and now use my iPhone to keep notes – that was where I wrote down the exact quote from the little girl I mentioned earlier.
Better Homes and Garden Designer Story. Early in my banking career I met an entreprenerial woman who used dreams to design Better Homes and Gardens craft kits. She and her husband had a very strong and growing business here in New Hampshire – she would design the craft kits and he would manufacture the kits and mail them out to monthly subscribers of the Better and Homes Garden craft network.
Photo by Sven Brandsma
In visiting their business, which was attached to their home, I remember meeting in her office, which was adjacent to their master bedroom. In this office was her design or drafting table. She explained to me how at that point all her designs either originated in her dreams or were refined in her dreams. She had mastered the dream process and frequently during the night would get-up and draw things before she forgot them.
I should mention that at the point I met her she was the number one designer in this organization and their business was in the millions – this was not just a fringe business, the revenue was serious.
Photo from stephenking.com
There are many creative people, like Stephen King, who use dreams to enhance their work. Harvard Business Review has an interesting article about how you can practice certain things in your dreams to enhance performance. If you would like to read more about the science part of this topic, I recommend this article from Scientific American.
When we stop and think about our dreams, we may actually find some gold in them hills!
