Breaking Down Goals

My dad is full of "Dadisms", those nuggets of wisdom disguised as metaphors or stories in the way that only a dad can tell. My dad has a great one though, "Keep chopping and the chips will start flying." As much as I roll my eyes at the silliness of the delivery of his advice, he's so right. It's one I make sure I remember when I feel overwhelmed. I have to break each goal down into its smaller tasks. Doing so makes the goal seem not so daunting. And conquering the smaller tasks keeps me motivated to keep moving forward. I think so many of us get derailed on our goals because we don't break a task down like that. It's something we could all learn to do more, I think.

The Power of Dreams

I'm a believer in the message and power of dreams. Metaphor is a potent form of non-verbal communication and I think that's what dreams are. It's our unconscious mind's way of communicating with the conscious self.

I share a good many of my dreams with my friend Dan. He too is a believer in the power of dreams as I am. I discussed with him a dream I had last night, and our conversation helped me understand the full meaning of it.

I dreamed last night that I was trying to sew patches of fabric onto a glass window pane. The needle kept breaking and I was unable to get the patches sewn onto the glass. Dan's take was that the window represents light, sight, and clarity. My interpretation was to stop trying to do things that don't work for me. Dan replied that perhaps it meant to stop doing things that aren't working while reaching for the light. Combining the two notions I came to the conclusion that the dream meant to stop doing things (trying to sew fabric onto glass) that were blocking me from the realization of my goals (letting the light in).

If we have the curiosity and patience to investigate the meaning behind the message of our dreams, we can unlock a great many things.