Tap into Your Daydreams for Ideas and Motivation
By Guest Blogger----Amy Fries ©
Daydreams are not just wishful thinking —they are your nursery for ideas and your best mental state for tackling complex problems. Visionaries of every sort from Einstein to Walt Disney credit daydreams as the source of their moments of insight, and some of the most innovative companies in the world feature programs that give key employees the time and space to think creatively, i.e. daydream—Google offers a 20% program, 3M has a 15% program, and Gore & Associates (Gore-Tex, etc.) features “dabble time.”
While many of us can see the relationship between daydreaming and creativity in the arts and even science, we’ve been slower to come around to its usefulness in business. Say the word “visionary” however, and we understand how having a vision—a mental image or plan—can help someone start a breakthrough company or service. Well, a “vision” is just an upscale word for “daydream,” and “visionary” an upscale word for “daydreamer.”
Yes, I know. All the work and focus must follow to have an idea come to fruition. I am not against focusing in any way, shape, or form. But the original idea and the motivation to fulfill that idea are birthed in a daydreaming state, and we do our most creative problem solving when our mind wanders.
Why Daydreaming Is Your Most Creative State of Mind
• Recent studies using brain scans show that when daydreaming, we are using the most complex regions of the brain, tapping into stores of knowledge and experience unavailable when focused on only one thing.
• While daydreaming, we can envision—we can see things, people, and events in our mind’s eye. This enables you able to see the big picture, something you’re unable to do when locked in the tunnel vision of focus.
• The daydreaming mind is completely uncensored, which gives you the freedom to explore a wide, and sometimes wild, variety of options without an internal critic hovering.
• You are able to free-associate when daydreaming, making seemingly random connections, which in turn enable you to come up with creative solutions. I’m sure you’ve had the experience when you’re struggling to remember a name or word and you can’t get it despite focusing on it, but suddenly it will come back to you when you’re doing something off-task like taking out the garbage. That’s free association at work. In fact, the ability to make new and inventive associations, as we do in daydreaming state, is so valuable to creativity and to problem solving that computer scientists are incorporating the ability into software programs.
How to Jump Start Your Own Imagination
• First notice your daydreams and try to figure out your style and patterns. Take the quiz via the “link” section on my website www.DaydreamsAtWork.com or use the many questions and exercises in the book.
• Give yourself permission to daydream. The idea that daydreaming is wasteful or shameful is an old-school idea. Daydreaming is your most creative, visionary state of mind.
• Make the time and space to daydream. Don’t get so bogged down in your things-to-do list that you don’t have time for your thoughts to just wander.
• Explore your daydreams. If you can make some part of your daydreams happen, give it a try. For example you can travel to some place you always daydreamed about. You could volunteer for a job that always sparked your curiosity. Use your daydreams to help give you direction.
• Use prompts like music, reading, traveling, or new experiences to spark new daydreams. Even daydreams can get stuck in a rut!
Author bio: Amy Fries’s new book Daydreams at Work: Wake Up Your Creative Powers (Capital Books, 2009) shows you how to tap into your daydreams for ideas, energy, solutions, and motivation for both work and life. It’s filled with thought-provoking questions and exercises, and includes discussion guides geared for both book clubs and business groups. Amy is a respected writer and editor whose articles have been published in a variety of newspapers, magazines, and trade publications. In addition, Amy has written over 40 articles for AchieveSolutions.net and has taught writing and literature at George Mason University. To read more about the book or to contact Amy, visit her website: www.DaydreamsAtWork.com