Today begins the Strategy phase of the 60 Days of Dreaming challenge. It's one thing to spend time pondering and praying, contemplating and imagining, wondering and writing (all of which you've been doing) - it is another thing entirely to develop an actionable strategy for fulfilling the DREAM. If you've been at all enervated or excited by the previous 16 days, then hold on, this is when it starts getting really fun!
ENGAGING THOUGHT
I'm not a great golfer. Okay, truthfully, I'm not even a good golfer. In fact, I haven't golfed in a few years. It's strange, really. I used to enjoy golf much more than I do now. If I had to guess why I've stopped enjoying golf it would be that I think about it too much. My brain gets in the way.
When I first started golfing I'd just step up to the ball and whack it with the club. It was fun. The ball even went near where I wanted sometimes. Then I started hanging out with golfers and they ruined the game for me. They gave me tips and techniques to improve my play. For every different situation on the course there was a collection of pointers and advice to memorize. I could no longer just hit the ball closer to the pin. Now I had to analyze my stance, adjust my grip, position my hips and shoulders just right, squint with my left eye, tense my nose-hairs and empty my thoughts. The ball stopped going anywhere near where I wanted. My enjoyment for the game shot sideways off the course faster than my slice. I talked with a Golf Pro at a course one time about this and he said it's common for people who don't know any better to actually golf fairly well, then fall apart when they start learning "proper" technique. It seems that we can instinctually hit the ball fairly straight if we don't think about it...and if we tell the "golf-experts" to shut their mouths.
In the pursuit of God's DREAM for our lives we may be better equipped for the strategy phase than we often give ourselves credit for. Whenever we face a challenge or a project we begin to strategize long before we ever put the pencil to paper or before we start taking noticeable steps forward. Almost immediately we begin what I call the Gut-Level strategizing. Gut-Level strategizing is actually what it sounds like: formulating the plan of attack from our gut-level instincts or, perhaps more clearly, our unprocessed ideas. These are the thoughts and ideas and plans we make before we ever give too much thought about practicalities or difficulties or costs or benefits or, blah, blah, blah. Gut-Level ideas happen while we're still having fun imagining the thrill of fulfilling the DREAM. Think of Gut-Level ideas as the feeling of the wind whipping through your hair as you motor down the country-road in a convertible on a sunny, care-free afternoon. Capture the ideas generated while you're feeling that way and you have a handful of gold.
The problem is we very quickly leave these moments and remember that we forgot to close the garage door after we backed the car out; oh, and it looks like the engine is running too hot, better back off and find a gas-station; and, before you forget, you do need to get back soon enough to fire off that urgent email you neglected to do...see what I mean? I don't know if it's part of the curse on fallen mankind or not, but we can't seem to leave the problem-solving mode behind us for very long. We're so blasted practical all the time! By purposely giving space to let our imaginations run free for a while we just may tap into the brilliant not-at-all-obvious strategy hiding in the recesses of our minds. There was no way it would poke its head out if we were in kill-the-silly-ideas mode.
There will be plenty of time for considering the practicalities and doing the hard work of scrutinizing our plan - but let's not bring those tasks into this phase of the DREAM. Let's not spoil the ride or ruin the game!
When I first started golfing I'd just step up to the ball and whack it with the club. It was fun. The ball even went near where I wanted sometimes. Then I started hanging out with golfers and they ruined the game for me. They gave me tips and techniques to improve my play. For every different situation on the course there was a collection of pointers and advice to memorize. I could no longer just hit the ball closer to the pin. Now I had to analyze my stance, adjust my grip, position my hips and shoulders just right, squint with my left eye, tense my nose-hairs and empty my thoughts. The ball stopped going anywhere near where I wanted. My enjoyment for the game shot sideways off the course faster than my slice. I talked with a Golf Pro at a course one time about this and he said it's common for people who don't know any better to actually golf fairly well, then fall apart when they start learning "proper" technique. It seems that we can instinctually hit the ball fairly straight if we don't think about it...and if we tell the "golf-experts" to shut their mouths.
In the pursuit of God's DREAM for our lives we may be better equipped for the strategy phase than we often give ourselves credit for. Whenever we face a challenge or a project we begin to strategize long before we ever put the pencil to paper or before we start taking noticeable steps forward. Almost immediately we begin what I call the Gut-Level strategizing. Gut-Level strategizing is actually what it sounds like: formulating the plan of attack from our gut-level instincts or, perhaps more clearly, our unprocessed ideas. These are the thoughts and ideas and plans we make before we ever give too much thought about practicalities or difficulties or costs or benefits or, blah, blah, blah. Gut-Level ideas happen while we're still having fun imagining the thrill of fulfilling the DREAM. Think of Gut-Level ideas as the feeling of the wind whipping through your hair as you motor down the country-road in a convertible on a sunny, care-free afternoon. Capture the ideas generated while you're feeling that way and you have a handful of gold.
The problem is we very quickly leave these moments and remember that we forgot to close the garage door after we backed the car out; oh, and it looks like the engine is running too hot, better back off and find a gas-station; and, before you forget, you do need to get back soon enough to fire off that urgent email you neglected to do...see what I mean? I don't know if it's part of the curse on fallen mankind or not, but we can't seem to leave the problem-solving mode behind us for very long. We're so blasted practical all the time! By purposely giving space to let our imaginations run free for a while we just may tap into the brilliant not-at-all-obvious strategy hiding in the recesses of our minds. There was no way it would poke its head out if we were in kill-the-silly-ideas mode.
There will be plenty of time for considering the practicalities and doing the hard work of scrutinizing our plan - but let's not bring those tasks into this phase of the DREAM. Let's not spoil the ride or ruin the game!
ACTION STEP
Write down as many of your gut-level strategy ideas as you can. Don't worry about whether they do or do not seem likely to work - you'll refine later. Your gut-level ideas may not be accurate but they often lead to a fresh approach in how you might approach the DREAM. Write them down now so you can return to them later.
Tomorrow we'll spend some time broadening the horizon a bit and exploring some strategies others have employed.
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