The Importance of Dreaming Big

By: Edward Viljoen on Saturday, April 07, 2012

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I was clearing out some old journals that I used up for brainstorming and organizing thoughts when I came across a series of notes from 1996 that seem to be signs of me dreaming big about work. The notes tell the story about a ‘vision’ I had at the time for how our Center for Spiritual Living sanctuary could be. The words I wrote down include: peaceful, welcoming, beauty, simplicity, charm, meditative, soothing, pleasing, home, visible stage, acoustically sound, well lighted, dramatic effect, seats 700-800 comfortably.

Reading the notes caused a happy grin to grow on my face because those brainstorming notes could very well be the current description of our sanctuary. Through community collaboration, and selfless service, a team of creative people have produced a sanctuary
that is all of that and more. Now I’m light heartedly wondering what else I ought to have jotted down on the paper. I’m not thinking of my journal as a magical catalogue from which to order my dreams – it’s much more practical than that. I’m thinking of the magical effect that is produced in my life by writing down my ideas, dreams and creative thoughts. There is something definite and certain about an idea written down, and it that state, it seems to apply an influence on my choices and actions that is more likely to produce results.

Reading the notes reminded me of the importance of dreaming big and, for me, writing the ideas down on paper. I can’t fully explain why it is so effective for me, however, I have some ideas. When I write ideas down on paper something happens to the vast and free flowing ideas in my imagination. They have to be slowed down and organized into a form that can flow from the vast mindscape within through the hand and then the pen onto the page. And there, frozen in time, the idea stares back at me and starts its work; at least that is what I tell myself. Something else I’ve noticed is that once the idea is written down I don’t have to be concerned about retrieving it. This freedom allows me to go about my work, think about other related ideas, and dream on, because the original idea is safely hosted on paper.

In the same journal I found a list of dreamlike ideas about partnership. I’m not sharing that list here. I’ll just say I have been laughing intermittently for about the last two hours. Not everything we write down comes to pass, nor should it always.