So you have a big dream, and you’re not sure how to manifest it into reality. If you read “Castles in the air,”
then you know the first step is to keep your eyes on your dream and
keep that inspiration flowing. One great way to do this is to create an
Inspiration Board.
Designate a place in your workspace for a bulletin board (or an equivalent like a white board or a magnetic board), and use it to post drawings, photographs, sketches, notes, and anything else that will remind you of your dream and keep you inspired in pursuing it. If your dream is to become a Major League baseball player, for example, then you might pin up a photograph like this one, created by Anne Ritchie and contributed to the Win-Win Web Scavenger Hunt.
Big dreams can be a long time in the making, so make sure your Inspiration Board is easy to change. Staring at the same inspiration over and over for months on end can become somewhat less than inspiring, especially if things aren’t moving along as quickly as you’d like. Move the board around as often as you need to in order to hold on to that feeling of enthusiasm.
One way to keep your inspiration flowing is to add new ideas to the board as you sharpen your vision, juxtaposing them next to old ones so you can see your progress. For example, new sketches for that invention (or career path, or dream home, or…?) can be posted next to old ones, so you can see how your dream has evolved over time. Of course, you can always take the old ones down if they no longer inspire you, but I find that tracking the evolution of my dreams helps me by providing tangible results for the “mental” work that goes into the process.
In fact, thinking work is some of the most valuable yet paradoxically some of the least valued work we do. When I spend half a day thinking about a problem, maybe creating sketches I don’t like, or creating journal notes that seem useless, or just frowning and staring at the wall in my office, it can easily feel like time wasted. Nothing puts me in a bad mood like feeling unproductive. Sometimes it makes me want to take a chain saw to my dreams so I can go lie on a beach and drink strawberry daiquiris instead. (Thanks again to Anne Ritchie for another great photo.)
If you’re feeling that way, take heart. Those feelings of frustration are a common part of the dream building process. Don’t shred your dreams and throw them away just yet. Take some time off, get outside for a while, and think about something else. Inspiration often strikes when you’re least expecting it. When you do get back to the proverbial drawing table, your Inspiration Board, and the enthusiasm that lies at the heart of your dreams, will be right there waiting for you.
