What are you dreaming of? Or, are you even dreaming? It’s not a question of sleep and are you getting enough of it. It is about living the life of your dreams, something we have all heard but may not feel we are doing much of every day. I see a lot of people working on intense projects at Nike, with go-lives looming and big accountabilities to be met. Some have been working long hours under stressful deadlines for weeks, months, or even longer. So, how do we maintain momentum and perspective during times of significant work and stress? Try spending a few minutes with your dreams.
Over the summer a friend came to me and recommended that I become a Dream Manager and I thought she meant, just be a better manager. But instead, she recommended a book called “The Dream Manager” by Matthew Kelly because she thought I would make a good one. The premise is quite simple. What if a company, a small group of colleagues, or family members worked together to facilitate achieving some or all of our dreams? One person would facilitate and help each person identify and build action plans for their dreams. They would continue to meet periodically to assist with roadblocks and accountability. What an amazing world we could live in if everyone knew their dreams, and were actually attaining some or all of them!
You can start right now in a simple way. Take a short break and write down 100 dreams for your life. It may help to think of them in terms of categories such as Physical, Emotional, Intellectual, Spiritual, Psychological, Material, Professional, Financial, Creative, Adventure, Legacy, and Character.
Here are some of my examples from my dreams list to give you an idea of how simple or complex they can be:
Physical: I’d like to ride a 100-mile bike ride, go on a 2-week walking trek vacation, run Hood-to-Coast with a 10-minute average pace, etc.
Adventure: learn to fly a plane, go surfing in Costa Rica, attend a high-performance driving school workshop, etc.
Creative: Learn to play boogie-woogie blues on the piano, take a basic Mandarin class, learn how to knit (again), etc.
Legacy (or in-service): Develop a workshop and coaching series that assists others to realize their dreams, volunteer 10 hours a month to local community groups and/or charities.
Once you write down your dreams, take some time daily for a couple of weeks and read them over. Maybe share with a partner or family member. Start to identify time horizons for them and action plans of what it would take to actually LIVE them. Some may be very attainable in the short-term (my knitting goal as an example) and others may take time and planning (my Hood-to-Coast dream given that I am just starting back to running after knew surgery a few months ago). Work with a buddy or someone who you can rely on to help hold you accountable to achieving the ones you want most. Visualize yourself doing them. As you work with these dreams over time and achieve some of them, you’ll gain momentum for some of the bigger ones. You’ll also see how some of them change over time; you may realize you can dream BIGGER than maybe you do today. Visit your dreams list often.
As you start to achieve more of your dreams, you might just notice a shift in your thinking, too. I noticed a shift in my thinking just from writing them down. Some of my dreams are so very attainable and the only thing getting in the way of them is ME! It’s the choices I am making, how I am prioritizing some things in my life, how I may be letting fear hold me back. Others, I may require help to achieve and that is okay, too. I also noticed a sense of gratitude started to arise for the many opportunities and dreams I have lived or am living and motivation to go after more of them!
I’d like to start a Dream Manager pilot with a small group of people willing to meet at or near Nike. If you are interested, I will consider the first 6 volunteers who email me by September 21st. The commitment you will be asked to make is this:
· Commit to identifying 100 or more of your dreams
· Meet with the group every 2-3 weeks for about 90-minutes over 3-4 months
· Be willing to create and work an action plan for at least 3-5 of your dreams during the pilot period
· Show up to at least 60% of the meetings and actively participate in them
· Be accountable, share your experience, provide support, encourage others
What you will get in return? Here are a few things that I would hope to offer:
· The ability to be a Dream Manager for others (a way to be in-service to others)
· You will laugh, you may cry, you may be inspired
· Build relationships with others doing this work
· You will have a list of your current dreams
· You may realize some of your dreams!
If you want to give it a try, send me an email at kim.lafever@nike.com. I am open to including people outside of Nike, too. We will figure out the meeting schedule once we have a group of participants. The most likely meeting schedule will be an 8:30-10 or 11:30-1 on a weekday as I frequently have evening meetings already scheduled.
I would love to hear about some of your dreams. Write a comment, or share a story below.
