There is a difference between dreaming and doing. But before the doing, we must allow time for the dreaming. the imagining.
Yesterday at lunch, we were having a conversation about rethinking our our work. The patterns we find ourselves in, the undoing of years of what we've always done, the courage to be curious, to work with our imagination.
Before we can realize our dreams, we must imagine what that can be. But how big and bold do we REALLY dream?
Fear is the obvious answer. Knowing the why of the fear is less important than embracing that it exists. Because if we do anything even a bit outside our comfort zone, fear simmers somewhere just under the surface.
As David Bowie says,
"If you feel safe in the area that you're working in, you're not working in the right area. Always go a little further into the water than you feel you're capable of being in. Go a little bit out of your depth. And when you don't feel that your feet are quite touching the bottom, you're just about in the right place to do something exciting."
We can apply this same philosophy to our life. It's easy to get complacent. It is desirable to feel safe (and rightly so!) Safety should be something we have, for ourselves and others, but what I am talking about is that place beyond the safety, where we give ourselves the spaciousness to explore. It's the place where we listen so deeply that we can hear even the faint whispers.
It's what's calling to you, what comes to you in your dreams. It's what ignites your imagination and makes you want to start a trail of discovery, be it a conversation, a book, a link, a letter, a magazine article, or a movie. Take a deep dive and immerse yourself into something new. Let that be a thread to somewhere. You don't have to know where it is going, or where it might lead, you just have to start dreaming, then do something, anything, that moves towards that thread.
Stay rooted in your core values, in the true nature of things, they will be your grounding. Then, allow yourself to fly freely, even if only in your imagination. That is where it all begins. Innovation comes after imagination.
X Alisa
photo credit: unknown