Why Daydreaming is a Must

WHY DAY DREAMING IS A MUST "Our brains can make cognitive leaps when we are not completely obsessed with a challenge, which is  why good ideas sometimes come to us while we are in the shower, or taking a walk or a long drive".write  Tom & David Kelley, IDEO founders in their latest book Creative Confidence: Unleashing the Creative  Potential Within Us All  What the brothers who founded IDEO suggest in their great new book, is that we take a mental vacation to help our ideas come together more quickly. This is why when you are with teams working on strategy, if you approach the problem or new futures from a side door, you'll get better results. Daydreaming is one of those regularly utilized side doors. When you daydream about something you long for, be it a creative project, a challenge, or an idea, your brain goes into underdrive, building that dream world in your subconscious with the help of your imagination.  "A daydream, in this sense, is just a means of eavesdropping on those novel thoughts generated by the unconscious. We think we’re wasting time, but, actually, an intellectual fountain really is spurting," writes Jonah Lehrer in a New Yorker article on the merits of daydreaming. According to a recent study led by the Harvard psychologists Daniel Gilbert and Matthew A. Killingsworth, people let their minds wander forty-seven per cent of the time they are awake. Daydreaming gives us an ability to merge ideas from the subconscious world and bring forth solutions.  Often cool and unexpected solutions. THIS YEAR WHY NOT GOAL SET FROM THIS OBLIQUE VIEW? Try this: When you go out, carry a blank journal and pencil with you.  Then, ask the universe for a sequence of signs, tips, clues about your next step. As things happen during your day that stand out as unusual, jot them down or draw a picture of that experience or thought.  What I mean by stand out is that you might be turning over a problem or idea, when suddenly you hear a song that seems to respond to what you were thinking.  Or someone says something unusual and your brain highlights it as "huh, that's weird."  Or you see a bumpersticker on a car that seems meaningful to you. The situation feels like what is sometimes called a "waking dream" or synchronistic experience. At the end of your day, look at your list or pictures of odd things and add them up.  Make meaning out of them. If they don't make sense right away, go do something else for while, and come back to it later.  Eventually it will become clear and you'll be able to take steps towards achieving those things.  What I love about daydreaming a new direction or change is I can count on myself doing it almost 50% of the time and when I daydream about the things I want more of, those positive things, it pulls me into a better frame of mind and opens the door to more possibilities.  With the change of the year, comes the opportunity to turn up the heat on your relationship with the daydreaming you.  If you want to learn more about what I am talking about, I'll be on Channel 2, KATU, AM Northwest on January 3rd, or please join me for one of the services at the Portland Unity Church on January 12th. After the morning services, I'll be facilitating a New Year, New You workshop from 1-3.  It's a new year, time to GET YOUR GOALS GAME ON. Love to your and yours, have a happy and safe holiday week!   ST MARYS PDX DRAW YOUR FUTURE Staff are amazing at this high school and I can't wait to run some vision to reality workshops with the students at this school. The students and teachers are open, creative, excited about learning. I can't wait to tell you what they teach me about visual goal setting. BULLETPROOF COFFEE UP YOUR CREATIVE GENIUS if you haven't heard of Dave Asprey yet, wait about a minute and you will.  His products, webcasts are an amazing way to find out more about how you can be in peak performance mode 24-7.  SHOUT OUT VISION TO REALITY SHOOT This team makes it happen. My neighbor,Brian Butterfield is an amazing, new filmmaker.  I hired him and his crew, Mike Poor, and Drew MacKenzieNoice to help me create some training videos.  I loved their ideas an enthusiasm.

Are You Using a Picture to Make Your Goals Real?

This week I heard from a gentleman who had taken a mind mapping workshop with Tony Buzan.  During the workshop he created this amazing mind map of what he wanted his life to be like.  The things he wrote and drew in this image are now the reality of his life today:

Here's Thum's story:
"My Future was drawn  21st April 2006 when I attended a workshop by Tony Buzan. He taught me Mind Map and it changed my future from a desk bound in-house legal counsel in a bank to become a licensed instructor sharing his vision of global mental literacy.

I have been sharing my drawings on facebook and with other people.  It changed their mind-sets and I am seeing more acceptance in Singapore where I live and work.  Recently, facebook has brought me to other countries i.e. Indonesia, Bulgaria, India, Thailand, Middle East, etc.  I am a regular contributor to Mind Map Art and was featured in a Singapore private University Magazine: 

Mind Map Art:   http://www.mindmapart.com/galleries/thum-cheng-cheong/
University Magazine:  http://tlc.unisim.edu.sg/publications/communitas/201201/

You can turn your dreams into reality using a simple picture too.  #meanit  #believeit

The best thing is, you don't even need to know how to draw!

Join us Monday, March 26th, 9AM PST or 5PM PST on our Google+ hangouts!

Get Ready to Make Change in the New Year

Are you ready to make changes in the New Year?
Do you want to build that dream you have been longing for?

Here is a perfect tool to help you get back on track:

Drawing Solutions  How Visual Goal Setting Will Change Your Life will be out in just about 3 weeks.  Filled with stories and drawings, techniques and true to life testimonials this book is the perfect gift for you, your partner, your friends, your boss.

Published by Creative Genius Press, it is 132 pages, $14.00.

If you'd like to know when it is available on Amazon, email me @Patti@upyourcreativegenius.com or sign up to receive this blog.
The first 25 of you will be put in a drawing to receive a free book.
2012 is right around the corner!
Join me in drawing your dreams into reality.

Holding the Visual Until Life Links You Up

More and more I am seeing the value of the visual.  Whether you dream it, you watch it, you imagine or you draw it, what you see in your mind and in your world becomes your reality.

I'm not making this up, your brain is.  That's right, your brain sees in two dimensions because of the optic nerve, but we live in a three dimensional world.  What does your brain do to compensate?  It makes it up.  It's fact that part of what you see is fiction.

Why not leverage that piece of brain science to your advantage?  Next time you want to be someone or somewhere else in your life, make it up using that innate tool of creative genius -  your imagination.  Envision it thoroughly as if you are right there, right now looking out through your own eyes experiencing it.  Make  it vivid.  Paint it with emotion. Lock it into memory.

Then do EVERYTHING you can to take action towards that vision to make it real.  Dream it everyday and be grateful for every small or large movement in that direction. Celebrate that movement.

Surprise yourself at how quickly your inner and outer imaginings can become reality.
Not through hocus pocus but through leveraging your own brain.  Curious?  Don't take my word for it.  Experiment on your own.

Hold that visual until life links you to it.