What the World Needs Now is More Dreamers
The Ability to Imagine is Our Greatest Asset
If you’re a natural-born dreamer, then you know that dreaming is the road to great ideas.
That state of mind, the dream-state, can be pure inspiration in a world where many perceive life in black and white terms. Dreamers see the world in technicolor.
Dreamers are not easily discouraged. Their dreams sustain them.
I’m a dreamer. I’ve been dreaming for as long as I can remember. It’s what I do. My imagination is possibly my most useful asset. Some of my dreams have become reality. I once dreamed that I could live everywhere but nowhere, moving from one country to another as soon as my 90 days on my American passport ended.
I did it, too. I lived a nomadic lifestyle for four years.
Dreamers have this little extra something that allows them to find options in life that non dreamers aren’t as likely to discover. We pride ourselves in our versatility and broad outlook. We can imagine a thousand different scenarios wherein we thrive. It’s the dreams that keep us going.
But there’s a downside to being a dreamer, too.
Yes, we can imagine amazing opportunities, adventures galore, and sample a wide array of experiences literally and figuratively, but we can also experience the opposite — nightmares.
I vacillate between the two but tend to spend more time in the inspirational mode, thank goodness. My brain stays busy imagining adventures and sampling endless variety, the spice of life, the bulk of the time. My mind is a virtual playground and truly sustains me even during challenging times like COVID lockdowns.
I am thankful for this gift. I do consider it a gift. I am endlessly entertained by my own thoughts and musings.
However, I’m also quite capable of accepting the facts. If I receive solid information, my mind remains open most of the time to the good, bad, and the ugly possibilities that can come from reliable sources. When I single out a dream with the intent of turning it into reality, my practical streak takes over. I explore and research like a demon-possessed woman. I love doing research. I immerse myself in that phase of carrying my dreams forward and thus usually avoid careless moves.
Calculated risks are considered but only after delving way below the surface of the dream.
I can take disappointment when my research reveals that the dream isn’t as doable as I had hoped. I hate cleaning up messes, so a lot of my dreams get discarded. That doesn’t destroy my ability to dream repeatedly, however. The dream state serves a purpose to my existence. I honestly believe keeping my mind open to fresh possibilities and then identifying my options has been key to any and all successes that I’ve experienced in life.
When the dreams turn dark, they’re often still useful.
There’s a misconception that dreamers always have a rosy outlook. That’s simply not true. Dreamers aren’t all the same. We’re probably on a spectrum from high to low with lots of variations in between. My ability to dream has more to do with identifying options in life than it does with avoiding reality.
There may be dreamers who remain hopelessly immersed in a dream-state because reality bites, but that’s not me.
I have an uncanny ability to face facts, but unlike nondreamers, I’m not stuck in a black and white version of This is Your Life. My mind soon takes over and begins to imagine different scenarios. Before I know it, options emerge, dreams materialize, and soon I’m immersed in research.
If I have options, I can function.
The news these days fluctuates between grim and dire. There’s little hope being offered to keep the “black and whiters” from spiraling down into a dark place. Perpetual bad news defines modern times, nonstop and relentlessly filling our heads with grim reality. So, a lot of people are forced to either remain in a state of despair and depression or resort to denialism and wishful thinking. Neither of the two encourage creative thinking nor do they open our minds to the dream-state that delivers options and feeds our imagination.
If we lose the ability to imagine, then we lose thousands of options at our fingertips and life becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
My imagination led me during the COVID outbreak of 2020 to research property above the 45th parallel. I kept imagining trees, nature, solitude, a place where I could be far away from the madding crowd. My dreams were intoxicating.
I longed to experience natural beauty and simplicity again.
Before I knew it, I was researching locations where climate change might have less effect. By reading material produced by various universities, I soon discovered that I lived very close to a region that met a lot of the requirements that my dream-state dared to imagine.
Twenty percent of the ENTIRE world’s fresh water can be found in the Great Lakes region.
Twenty percent! That fact alone made my head spin. I learned that in 2020, for the first time, fresh water appeared on the stock exchange. It had become a commodity and is destined to be the new gold of the future.
You can see where I was headed. Right?
The information combined with the dreams and soon a calculated risk was taken. I purchased land above the 45th parallel in a region that climatologists refer to as the New North. Bam! A nightmare inspired a dream-state which led to research and resulted in action.
I’ve yet to figure out if my brain is wired in a way that makes it easier for me to dream, research, and act.
I’m beginning to think that this may be the case. In other words, the “black and whiters” may be wired differently from me as well. Maybe they can’t easily imagine different scenarios and when confronted with new ideas and options are uncomfortable with imagining experiences that require changing what’s familiar to them. Change feels threatening, producing anxiety rather than inspiration. They either remain depressed or get angry and resort to denialism.
I don’t know. I may never know what makes people do what they do.
Fortunately, dreamers have always been around. Their fresh ideas have often created new opportunities for the world. They breathe life into our existence on this planet by daring to try new things. They model useful problem-solving skills. If you know a dreamer or are a dreamer, be thankful.
What the world needs now is more dreamers.
Teresa is a retired educator, author, world traveler, and professional myth buster. You can find her books on Amazon.
