From Dreaming to Doing: How to Make Room for What Matters Most

Read time: 4 minutes

“Without leaps of imagination or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning.”
– Gloria Steinem

From Dreaming to Doing: How to Make Room for What Matters Most

I’m doing a Monthly Review and looking at all the things I can’t get to. In an alternate universe, I’d be crippled by the idea that I can’t do so many of the things I want to. FOMO would be real, and I would likely be disappointed in my own capacity to get things done.

Last month, I had to re-park Punjabi lessons. The roots of this go deep for me. I spoke Punjabi as a child and have dreamt of picking it back up. While it’s not a pressing matter, I feel the sadness of potentially losing it entirely. It feels so important, but it’s not necessarily urgent. No one needs me to do this, nor is anyone holding me accountable to this dream.

Other Important Things Living in My Monthly Review:

• Make Aunt Mary’s bread recipe
• Design a guided audio recording for each part of the Groundwork System
• Create a new module for the online course on integrating your project management system into the practice
• Read Never Eat Alone
• Build out the Groundwork resilience and communications frameworks
• Become a master chef
• Do the around-the-world flight pass with Air Canada

You get the gist.

The Power of Saying “No”

One of the most important practices we are building when using the Groundwork System is the ability to say, “No, I’m not doing that,” even when it feels super important. And for good reason.

It’s impossible to do everything we intend to do.

On top of that, we are constantly reminded of all the things we should be doing: learn more, travel more, connect more, exercise more, be healthier, make more money—DO MORE THINGS.

The problem is that when we are weighed down by all the things we can’t get to, it becomes challenging to execute any of our dreams with peace of mind.

Dreaming is a Creative Act

Dreaming and envisioning are creative acts. They require a stable internal state, one that allows creativity to arise naturally because it can’t be forced.

Dreaming is the juice of life.

So, if this is true, why shouldn’t we plan for a way to dream and thoughtfully choose which dreams we’re going to put into motion?

What I’m Actually Doing

Because I’ve parked some of the above ideas, hopes, and dreams, here are some of the things I’m actually doing:

• Filling our coaching team’s schedules
• Writing the Groundwork book (1st draft completed!)
• Starting the Groundwork Podcast (just recorded our first episode)
• Writing a bi-weekly newsletter on important topics for alumni and their friends (on it!)
• Reinventing Groundwork’s verbal identity
• Leaning into new networks
• Doubling revenue this year
• Recovering from back surgery and becoming stronger and healthier than ever
• Studying Sufism
• Recording the next set of Groundwork meditations

Every day, I get more ideas. I capture new things and park others. Just yesterday, when I went out with a friend, I captured the dance lessons we keep talking about taking. Then I moved “go skydiving” to Monthly Review for next summer.

The Freedom to Dream

I have freedom. I have peace of mind. I let the dreams come, and I consciously plan for them.

What could be better than dreaming and planning?

For me, working with my system means I can stay tuned into creative thinking and experience the joy of ideas versus the pressure.

A Tip for Your Weekly Review

Here’s a little tip: When you do your Weekly Review this week, ask yourself, “What can I move to Monthly Review so I am better equipped to move some other key things forward?”

In Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals, Oliver Burkeman argues that when we are faced with everything we want to do, we are actually facing an existential crisis. Time is finite. We must decide what we will do, and what we won’t be doing.

You have a system for consciously deciding which dreams to put into motion and which to park.

But of course, never stop the dreams from coming!