For most of us living ordinary lives — washing endless loads of laundry and cleaning toilets and feeding our families meals eaten in less time than it took to prepare them — it’s easy to forget how to dream.

Add to that my extremely practical thinking, working through every possibility. I can easily come up with every possible reason an idea WON’T work. Worst-case scenarios are a specialty of mine. My brain = exhausting.

{When I was a child, I had an imaginary pet dragon: evidence I once allowed myself impractical thought. How fun would it be to have a pet dragon? Oh, wait, they made a movie out of that!}

I’ve spent decades squelching ideas before they even have a chance to become a coherent thought, but I’m no longer content to continue on that way. Can you relate?

To learn to dream big, you’ll need:

1- time

Big chunks or little snatches. I spent a lot of time on the porch last summer, just thinking. When it’s warm enough, I often start my day there, and steal an additional ten minutes here or there whenever I can throughout the day. For me personally, ideas come more easily outdoors. The key is to let this be unplugged time alone with no agenda.

2- ideas

Read blogs, fiction, biographies. Talk to creative people who dream.
Ideas spark ideas so even if you don’t share the same dream as someone else, their ideas may inspire your own offshoot. In the beginning, I was so out of practice with dreaming, I didn’t have any of my own. Hearing or reading about other people’s dreams helped me begin to form a few of mine.

3- lists

Get your dream on paper. Writing them down can be scary, vulnerable. I got over this by creating a list, and wrote every might-be-possible dream I could think of, with a goal of filling the page. Some dreams are bigger than others, but I found writing them spawned more. Try art journaling, too; it can seem less scary than list-making, and the creative process may give birth to even more dreams. {That flying pig is one of my most recent art journal pages.}

4- people you trust

My dreams lived in my head long before they made it to paper, and lived on paper before I worked up the nerve to speak about them to anyone. Because when a dream is still just a baby “if,” it’s fragile; even well-meaning friends can smash it to bits. Find at least one person you can trust to handle your dreams with care.

>> Do you dream big?
What’s something you dream of? A “someday” or “what-if” you’re hoping for? I promise not to smash your dreams, whatever they may be. Remember, sometimes pigs do fly.

Jamie

Wife, mom, J-ma. Introvert who enjoys good books, sunshine, and authentic conversation. Often seen with a steaming mug of tea in hand – unless it’s lost yet again in the microwave. Read more »