The Power of Dreaming
Every now and again, when you’ve been doing work like mine as long as I have, magical things happen.
They remind me, deep in myself, how important work like coaching can be.
One happened this week.
Via a mutual connection, I heard a little sprinkling of what is happening in the life of a former client of mine. Someone I worked with for a series of sessions years ago.
And as our mutual connection told that story, I have to confess, I nearly did a footballer-esque celebration. I managed to tone down my voice somewhat to preserve confidentiality because of course our mutual friend didn’t know the detail of our work, even if they knew we had worked together at all.
Because of a series of powerful conversations, one moment with that client has always stuck in my mind.
When we stepped into the future, inviting the client, spontaneously because of what she had spoken about, to answer - really answer - that most powerful question: what do you really want?
I can remember the feeling of the conversation even now, as she spoke, shyly, cautiously and incredibly courageously. She explained what she really wanted.
The kind of thing you can’t control - you can’t make happen - no matter how much you try.
The kind of thing that the universe has to play a part in if it is to come into existence.
She was brave enough to say it, all the same. I remember my feeling as I heard it: I knew it was what she truly wanted, and I knew it was fragile because we couldn’t be sure it would happen.
There was an almost hushed quality to that conversation. And it’s one I recognise.
It’s the sound of dreaming.
It’s the kind of hush that old myths talk about as someone delivers a prophesy. Where the wind stops and the gods listen.
And here it was. Dreamt, prophesied, heard and then, many years later, created.
The power of dreaming cannot be underestimated.
For those courageous enough to really listen to themselves, and say ‘I Want This’, ‘I Dream This’, the world will often change.
Each of those words is important.
I - it must be you. Not society, not your parents, not your partner, not your friends. What do you want? What do you dream?
Dream - allowing ourselves to really want. To really listen. To really invite possibility. Not realism - not now, at least. Just dream.
This - the specificity, the detail, the choice - this, not that - they are the things that make it real, make it what we want, what we dream. The little things that make it special, and the sometimes little things that - if they were different, would make our lives into our dreams.
And then the world will often change.
It might change inside, as it did for me when I recently completed my favourite written dreaming exercise for the first time in seven years. And suddenly seeing that my dream was not so different to reality.
And that actually, really, I didn’t dream some of the things that my mind was thinking about. In fact, although I thought about them a lot, I didn’t dream them at all.
And so my mind could relax, trusting my dream.
I’ve seen many of those written dreams come to pass, too - sometimes in conversation, sometimes on social media: seeing the garden that someone once dreamed; seeing the business partner that someone once dreamed; seeing the career or the client that someone once dreamed.
Not always, of course. But sometimes.
Sometimes those dreams first spoken with the shyness, caution and hush of prophesy… sometimes they come into being.
As the genie would say: be careful what you wish for. We never know where it might lead.
And so, best to really listen to yourself, sometimes.
Best to really dream.
Best to really want the thing you say you want.
Best to ask yourself the question, sometimes…
What do I dream?
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This is the latest in a series of articles written using the 12-Minute Method: write for twelve minutes, proof read once with tiny edits and then post online.
Buy the 12-Minute Method series of books, written 12 minutes a week over three years, here.