Daydreams.  I know when I was younger, I was an awesome daydreamer. I had a fantastic imagination. It just went along with playing. I’m not so sure kids nowadays do much daydreaming since their days are planned so tightly with STUFF that they don’t have as much time to lie underneath a tree and daydream. Usually there is a cell phone in their hand or a television remote or they’re in gymnastics and tumbling and math camps, basketball camps and cheerleading camps and school activities and church activities and family activities and and and.

No trees.

Some of my favorite times in life were lying underneath a weeping willow tree, hidden from the world, daydreaming about stuff. Nothing important, just stuff. Maybe about going over to the gooseberry patch and eating fresh ones. Maybe about a boy. Maybe about what I wanted to be when I grew up. Maybe about mastering the stilts my dad made me. Maybe about the pie mom was making for dinner. Who knows? It was very important, whatever it was.

If you don’t daydream, if you don’t have dreams, you are cheating yourself out of some of the best ways to challenge yourself. To keep growing, stretching and living fully.

I’m not talking about daydreaming about getting some sleep if you have a newborn infant in your house (although that IS important). I’m not talking about daydreaming about what’s for supper tonight (although that is important, too). No, I’m talking BIGGER.

In researching some of the richest entrepreneurs by reading biographies, Googling, studying, I realized almost all of them daydreamed. Several actually scheduled a specific time – an appointment with themselves, if you will – to sit specifically to daydream without interruptions. 

I heard someone say, “If you can’t ‘see’ it before you have it, you’ll never have it.” Many wealthy entrepreneurs daydream. They sit around letting their minds wander, sometime to great things.

Without dreams, most inventions would never have come into existence. Without dreams, famous paintings would never have been painted. Without dreams, beautiful poetry would still be stuck inside people without expression. Without dreams, great works of history would never exist. Without dreams, generations of people would not be free. Without dreams, what are we?

I believe it is important to take time out each day and just relax for a minimum of 15 minutes (more if you can), just for yourself. Sit, unplug electronics (yes, that means NO texting, facebooking or instantly messaging your most important life issues. Relax, it’s only a few minutes out of your day). To me this is the equivalent of lying under a tree and daydreaming. 

Daydream about what you would do with your current life if money were no object. Daydream about what and who you would become if there were no obstacles in your way. Daydream about something you’ve always wanted to do but never accomplished. Daydream about becoming all you ever wanted to become. Since you’re simply daydreaming, DAYDREAM BIG.

And while you are daydreaming, why not figure out something you can do each day toward that one special dream? Jot notes. Google lessons. Outline a few chapters. Practice vocal lessons.

While it may be a wee bit too late to become a prima ballerina for the New York City Ballet (unless you’re very young), it is never too late to take dance lessons. Take piano lessons! Go to college IRL or online – how about culinary school? Dream of art? Go out and buy an easel, paint, charcoal, watercolours, and paper. Take lessons. Start somewhere.

Time will pass whether you pursue your dream or sit around wishing you could pursue your dream.

Without dreams, where would Kentucky Fried Chicken be? Oprah? Who would take cumbersome computer systems out of the back room, to a desktop to a laptop to a handheld cell phone? Every single thing started with an imagination – as a “what if?” – a daydream.

I believe it is never too late to daydream and it is never too late to do something about those daydreams. You can’t use your age as an excuse to quit daydreaming. There are far too many people who began walking in their dreams later in life. I’m talking in their 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. Those are the ages they BEGAN to do. What’s your excuse?

READY TO START DAYDREAMING?  You are the only thing standing in the way of your dreams.