Originally posted by Dave Thompson on work blog, September 14, 2012

Of all the people I thought would support me in my dreams & goals, I wouldn’t have even considered JCPenny to be in that group. But then they spammed me recently with a “You’re Not Dreaming” email. Maybe my interpretation is a bit different than what their marketing department had in mind, but I couldn’t believe that JCPenny had focused on me long enough and thought “Dave has stopped dreaming”. Grrrrr. If JCPenny can see it there must be some truth to it. Gotta do something about that! I took it as a challenge, reviewed my dream list and ended up adding 3 new dreams last weekend!!

We all have highs & lows and periods of distractions & focus. It’s so important not to lose focus on our goals and short- & long-term plans for too long. If you need a burst of energy and want to see examples of what people all over the world have on their “dream lists” then check out the video of the “Before I die I want to” TED talk by Candy Chang.

Here’s a quote from the video:

“Two of the most valuable things we have are time and our relationships with other people. In our age of increasing distractions it’s more important than ever to find ways to maintain perspective and remember that life is brief and tender…preparing for death is one of the most empowering things you can do. Thinking about death clarifies your life…shared spaces can better reflect what matters to us as individuals and as a community; with more ways to share our hopes, fears, and stories, people around us not only help us make better places, they help us lead better lives.”

Before I die I want to __________

How would you fill in that blank? What’s the one thing you would write on that line?

Write it down. Tell somebody about it. Pause. Reflect.

Ok…what’s stopping you from doing it??? Get moving before JCPenny sends you a reminder!!!

Here are a few more related links to Candy’s TED topic:

• Before I Die…Twitter responses
• Her site (responses & pictures of walls)

p.s. Seems like JCPenny took note of my recent re-focus on dreaming again – this week’s email is”Denim: More Choices than ever” 😉

Originally posted by Dave Thompson on work blog, July 26, 2012

So who watches Modern Family? I don’t on a regular basis but a friend of mine (who I introduced to creating a list of dreams) told me I had to watch the “Punkin Chunkin” epsiode. In this episode the families end up pitting the “dreamers” vs. the “Pritchetts” (“Pritchett” is a family name on this show). The dreamers see their dreams repeatedly squashed throughout this show by the “practical Pritchetts” which culminates in a bet about whether a pumpkin can be launched across a football field into the sunroof of a car. The dreamers initially fail but then the Pritchetts rally to revive the dream. There are some great quotes from this episode:

• “There are dreamers and there are realists in this world. You’d think the dreamers would find the dreamers and the realists would find the realists but more often than not the opposite is true. You see the dreamers need the realists to keep them from soaring too close to the sun. And the realists, well, without the dreamers, they might not ever get off the ground.“;
• “You squelch me right when I’m about to soar…Don’t let these negative nellies drag you down.”;
• “Here we have the skeptics, the dream squashers, the Pritchetts. Here we have the dreamers, the artists, the visionaries. Let’s settle this, Dreamers vs. Pritchetts.”;
• (while defending squashing other people’s dreams) “If we didn’t do this to them the world would.”

I don’t know that I would have chosen those exact words…but I think so much of this is true. I’m a Pritchett (with some Dreamer tendencies every so often). I squash my own dreams (too much money; too impractical; too much time focused on me). Can anyone relate? Or are any of you dreamers that struggle with how to move forward or stay focused? It was hard for me to list 100 dreams – and really hard for me to list the fun, impractical, “there’s no way I can ever do that” dreams. But it’s so key to create your list without filtering or censoring your dreams. If you think it, write it. Add it to your list. Don’t worry about money, time, etc – not yet. Tweak your list. Add to it. Tweak it. Repeat. See what bubbles to the top. And then (this is where you need a Pritchett to help you) choose steps (small steps are fine too) towards making those dreams happen.

The world needs the Dreamers and the Pritchetts. We feed off each other. It’s all of us working together and sharing our dreams and ideas that keeps the world fun and full of and energy and makes great things happen all around us. So…who wants to help me chunk some pumpkins later on?

Originally posted by Dave Thompson on work blog, June 1, 2012

I cut out a Mother Goose & Grimm cartoon from last week’s comics where a jar of glue is laying on a psychiatrist’s couch. The psychiatrist says to the jar of glue, “You should stop getting attached to material things.”

Can anyone relate? Those things & toys & must-have-it-nows fall into one of the classic dream categories (Material), and they often bring us instant pleasure and are easy to scratch off our dream lists – so go for it, buy, buy, buy and put a smile on your face right now!

But beware that your smile will likely fade sooner than you would like…and if you don’t have a game plan in life you may quickly be in search of the next purchase to make you feel happy again. This may be easier to see in others than in yourself – think of those around you who may be in this pattern. Tony Hsieh (CEO of Zappos), in his great book Delivering Happiness, defines 3 levels of happiness…pleasure, passion, and higher purpose. Guess which one he calls the “rock star” type of happiness (i.e., it’s hard to sustain unless you’re living the life of a rock star) and is the shortest lasting? Yep, pleasure – once the stimuli are gone the happiness level drops immediately. Passion happiness (characterized as “being in the zone” or “when time flies by”) lasts even longer, and higher purpose happiness, lasts the longest yet. Tony suggests most of us are doing it backwards, and that to achieve long term happiness we should start with pursuing our higher purpose, layer passion on top of that, and have that drive our pleasure happiness.

If only that were as easy as it sounds – but I get his point. We all want happiness, but far too often we make short-term decisions in the pursuit of happiness that may not align with (and could rob from) our long-term passion & higher purpose. So…create your dream list…100 dreams (yes, creating a list of this many dreams should really force you beyond your comfort zone)…look at that list, reflect on it…see if you can get a glimpse of your passion & higher purpose in life, and then you won’t have to worry so much about how long your latest new “toy” will keep you happy 🙂

Originally posted by Dave Thompson on work blog, May 6, 2012:

I liked this quote from a book I recently read (Less: Accomplishing More by Doing Less, by Marc Lesser) and personally see how this absolutely relates to the focus that my dream list provides to me:

“To accomplish more by doing less involves a simple yet profound transformation: it’s a different way of being in the world. You may, in fact, be no less busy, but you will be less scattered and distracted, and you will accomplish more of what matters to you: more of what aligns with your deepest purpose and intention; more of what brings you satisfaction and connection with others; more of what you believe really needs to get done. Doing less and accomplishing more is about aligning your actions with your values and your particular passions. And finally, by becoming more peaceful and at peace with yourself, you will spread that into the world, which will become that much more peaceful and sane as a result.“