17th February 2011
`Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds
Awake to find that all was vanity;
But the dreamers of the day are dangerous men,
That they may act their dreams with open eyes to make it possible'
T E Lawrence
There are two types of dreams – the daydream and the night dreams. From very young days, we are instructed not to daydream. But, in my time management seminars, I say just the opposite – ask the participants to daydream!
One important aspect if self-development is goal setting. If we don't set goals, we will lose the focus in life. We need to have clarity on our long term, medium term and short term goals. We have to be clear as to what we want to achieve in a shorter span of time such as a week, day and even the next one hour.
Day dreaming has to be structured. In NLP, we talk about what is called a `as if frame'. In this we take a hypothetical example and imagine as if it is true and consider how we are going to tackle the same. In management terminology, we can call it as strategy formulation.
Edward De Bono is an amazing person who propagated a concept called lateral thinking. In one process called `Po', which stands for provocation, he suggests that we should assume a hypothetical situation, which will provoke us to think differently. In life, we take certain things for granted. With such frame of mind, we may assume an ideal situation and flow of events. Sometimes it may not be true.
For example, we know that a wheel is round. Supposing we say `Po, the wheels are not round, but in a square shape', it will make us to think in a completely different dimension. If the wheel is in a square shape, perhaps we have to redesign the braking system, the suspension, the axle etc. Such a thinking may open new possibilities and opportunities.
Many of to-days' inventions are the result of someone daydreaming new opportunities.
So dream – daydream!
N C Sridharan
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