Barrier of Bland

[BLAND - VII]

In grade school it was daily.
In high school, weekly.

That is, when I was younger, my impulse to daydream was chastised. Staring out the window—dreaming about the sensation of flying, a world without cars, what it would be like to have scales or to live in a tree, or whatever—was always cut short.

Daydreaming was not paying attention.
Not a good use of time.
Not productive.

In college, I was allowed to daydream all I wanted.

And I learned something when I was given that freedom: my most creative work and my most cogent ideas came on the heels of daydreaming. Not because I dreamed them up first . . . but because daydreaming gave me the permission to playfully imagine what’s beyond common restrictions. And that’s often the missing ingredient to good work.

Permission.

Give yourself permission to daydream.
And you’ll break through the barriers of bland.