I always sleep with a notepad and pen close to hand.
I’ve remembered important information, have come up with creative ideas and documented some pretty whacky dreams.
Last weekend, Christine looked at my pad and asked what I’d been writing.
I had no idea.
Could it have been a billion-dollar idea I’d had during my sleep?
After all…. Dmitri Mendeleev generated the Periodic Table, Paul McCartney crafted the melodies of Let It Be and Yesterday and Mary Shelly literally dreamt up Frankenstein – each in a state of REM sleep. And topping them all, Keith Richards actually recorded the opening bars of Satisfaction in the middle of the night while fast asleep.
There were eight pages of ramblings (most appeared disconnected and some completely whacky) but I did see a thread leading through the pages and with a bit of patience, reading, recording and rereading, the idea flashed back into my conscious mind.
‘Got it!’, I declared to Mrs H, who had long since moved on to something much more immediate.
Was it a product? A service? A new app that solved global problems?
No. It was a way to streamline our expenses process at work.
Not the most exciting dream – and certainly not a billion-dollar idea – but still a good one. I’m introducing it next week.
I urge all my one-to-one clients to sleep with a note pad and pen within easy reach. When you start a coaching process, it’s amazing how fertile your sleeping mind becomes.
If you don’t write it down, the chances are you’ll forget it. And who knows, that hit tune, your billion-dollar business or a new way to do expenses could be lost forever.
Do you have any dream stories? If so, please share them below.
Be Brilliant!
Michael
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I learnt Adobe Illustrator in my sleep many years ago, when I was struggling trying to learn it during my daytime work, the pen tool was driving me nuts! I got it in my dream and have been a dab hand with it ever since. Like you… this is not the first time a dream has solved my problems!
My best one was at uni. I had a particularly thorny physics problem to solve and dreamt that I had solved it. I woke up to find I had forgotten the solution. Later in the day I decided reluctantly to have another go at it only to find that I had already written down the solution in my sleep.