All In The Details

Do you ever daydream or spend some time imagining and putting things on your "Desire List"?? I certainly hope so! I'm not sure what they tell students in schools these days, but I remember having teachers lecture us about daydreaming. It was not acceptable. I suppose, if they felt it got in the way of their lessons, they had a point. However, as I recall, the message was, Don't Ever Daydream, as if it was a bad thing!

I'm here to encourage you to daydream and what I really want to get into is, how to do it. It's easy and fun and it can have great results!

Have you ever wanted to go on a trip? Let's imagine that you want to go from the east coast of the U.S. to the west coast. I've done this many times, both by plane and car and like all travel, I highly recommend it, but let's get back to pretending this is on your bucket list. If you simply talk or think about going from Boston to Los Angeles, for example, the idea can be a little intimidating. Every time you think about it (because you really want to go), you might end up just frustrated and, after awhile, you'll probably give up on your dream. Looking at a trip that spans about 3,000 miles/4800 kilometers and could take a minimum of 6 hours or 6 days or up to a few weeks can be challenging, to say the least. How can you still hang onto your dream and move towards making it happen? I recommend taking the advice of American Entrepreneur, animator, and film producer, Walt Disney:

"There is no magic in magic. It's all in the details."

Not only did he create Disneyland and Disney World, along with countless cartoons, movies, and a tv show, he holds the record for most Academy Awards won by an individual ... 22 Oscars from 59 nominations! Everything he designed and brought into being began with a dream.

John Wooden, American basketball player and head coach at UCLA, won ten NCAA national championships, and a record for seven in a row! His words of wisdom ...

"It's the little details that are vital. Little things make big things happen."

So, if we apply this to the cross-country trip, it might look like this:

How would you like to travel? Figure out if you want to fly, drive, take a train, a bus or mix up your transportation modes.
How long would you like to be gone? A few weeks or a few months?
How long would you like to take to get from point A to point B?
Would you like to go straight across or maybe, zig-zag from south to north and back down south again?
Do you want to see some places along the way or, is it just about getting out to LA and what do you want to do when you get there?

Photo by Natalie B.

Are you getting a feel for what this might be like? You can do this for anything -- an ideal job, a new home, an event you'd like to create -- anything. Jot down your thoughts and answers to these or, make up the questions that work for your wishes. A really good way to get clear about what you want is to then turn your ideas and details from your daydreaming into a vision board. You can take some poster board and write down words as well as find pictures from magazines that put your desires right there in front of you and you can look at them anytime. The main thing is to allow yourself to play with your desires, allow yourself to daydream with abandon and have fun doing it. You might start with a 15-minute session of daydreaming and take five minutes to jot down your ideas. Do this a couple of times a week and then set aside an hour or two to create your design. Even better, ask some friends to do the same and pick a morning or afternoon where you can all get together and create your boards while enjoying community. Wonderful things can come from desires and daydreaming and this is what I wish for you.