Do you rather dream than do?
“I rather dream about doing the thing 3 times a week than actually doing the thing once a week NOW” this is a line that has really stuck with me from a podcast I listened to the other week. It ties into the topic of daydreaming vs living, but it isn't about finding a winner, rather for me it is to lean in and follow the right inclination at the time. There are times for daydreaming and there are times for doing- both are necessary.
However, there is a famous framework that was amplified by Steven Covey in his mainstream book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” called “be-do-have.” The framework is based on that you should work on getting the feeling of what it feels like being the thing that you really want to be (or set a goal/vision), then do the things you need to do in order to get there, and lastly you will have the thing you had envisioned. However, can the vision be used to escape reality? Having been an elite swimmer we often used this framework, but we also often changed it around to “do-be-have”. You have to swim in order to be a swimmer. It doesn't help to just envision. However, by mainly doing we can get lost in just working hard mindlessly with no intention.
This is why Im a strong believer in quickly going between the “be-do”, not waste years of dreaming of the day you will become a successful author/artist/midwife/accountant etc (Haha, only joking no-one is dreaming of being an accountant), but perhaps instead start committing to an hour a week rather quickly. Sit your butt in the chair and write for an hour a day and do so consecutively for some weeks. Does it evoke the feelings that you held in your heart when you were dreaming about it? If yes- then continue. If not- maybe try digging your hands into clay and make your first ceramic cup? Is this it? If not then at least you have a lovely cup for your morning coffee as you keep on envisioning what it is that you truly want to feel and try that next.
Why am I writing all of this? Well, as I'm starting my new job (as in being employed by someone else) for the first time since 2017 a lot of emotions have come up. Who am I now (be) when I do slightly different things (do) during my days and will I actually have the result (have) that I dreamt of in the first place? As I did mention earlier I believe that sometimes we have to “do” to see if it is the right “be”. I’m an entrepreneur, creative and business advisor. Ive spent a lot of my “doing” in the last five years as an entrepreneur, just this past year Ive started to dig back into my creativity (hence The Nash Collective), and will now spend my days advising other entrepreneurs on their journey (my old stomping ground). You can read more on that here if you would like. Maybe one day the “doing” of these three things will mold into one “being”, but for now, I'm sitting with this piece of beautiful art I just ordered from Amanda over at The Honest Jones and as I said in the last email taking it slowly by slowly.
Written by: Alexandra