We All Daydream...And That's a Good Thing!

Everyone with an intact brain daydreams, and we spend—believe it or not—30 to 70% of our waking time in various states of mind wandering. When you think about it, this significant amount of time we spend “lost in thought” isn’t that surprising. After all, we humans are a creative species. We get bored easily; our minds wander, and wander in imaginative ways that have moved us in a relatively short span of time from cave dwellers to websurfing, space-age globetrotters. It’s the ability to imagine that propels us. As such, daydreaming is both the engine that drives our imagination, and the nursery where ideas germinate.

The beauty of daydreaming is that it’s a process available to every one of us. Yet most know little about it. In our to-do-list world, we practically worship the focused, directed mind. We laud the pursuit of the quiet mind after wearing it out with stress. Yet we disparage our third state of mind, our most creative, imaginative, problem-solving, energizing, and entertaining mental state—the daydreaming mind.

I’m on a mission to help people get over their feelings of guilt and shame about daydreaming because 1) it’s a natural human function with many benefits, and 2) it’s where you get your ideas and motivation.

So, if you need new ideas for your business, your career, or life in general, and who doesn't?---learn how to tap into your daydreams.

The Audacity of Dreams....Or Rather, Daydreams

Barack Obama certainly had a dream . . . that one day he would be president. I’m sure in his younger years that many would have mocked him for such an audacious dream, but thankfully, Obama followed his own inner vision. And what is a “vision?” At the end of the day, 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. Take the “day” in daydream away and what do you have—“dream.” While most of us don’t have the ego to think of ourselves as visionaries experiencing grand moments of insight, we can all relate to having daydreams, and we can learn to mine them for ideas and energy.

Daydreams can be powerful blueprints for our life. When we daydream or fantasize about our future, we are mentally imaging events and situations—that is visualizing them—long before they happen. We need to build on our positive daydreams and weed out the negative.

Daydreams at Work Available for Pre-Order

My book Daydreams at Work: Wake Up Your Creative Powers will be published in May 2009 by Capital Books.

It's about why we daydream, why daydreaming is our most creative state of mind, and how we can use our daydreams creatively in our work and in our life to generate ideas, problem solve, find motivation, and get energized.

We all daydream. But most of us know nothing about the process. We may even feel guilty for daydreaming even though it's a very natural and incredibly beneficial function. Well.....it's time to stop feeling guilty and start exploring your daydreams for their creative potential.

The publisher, Capital Books, is offering a pre-publication discount--30% off pre-orders. Visit http://www.capital-books.com/ or call 1-800-758-3756, and use code DAY531. Or pre-order from your favorite local or online bookstore.

What are you daydreaming about lately? Let me know....