I am pro-dream. There, I said it.

Of course, I kid, but seriously folks, what’s up with the lack of dreaming going on? I kid half-heartily because somehow, someway, many potential clients I meet have either forgotten how to dream or dare not utter the d-word.

Is there a mysterious anti-dream organization operating in stealth mode around the country zapping people of their ability to dream? What could explain this bizarre phenomenon?

I for one will not be fooled by these potential tricksters and saboteurs wreaking havoc with our dreams, whoever they may be. In honoring the great Martin Luther King on Monday, one can’t help but conjure up the vision of his inspiring I had a Dream Speech. Look no further than to this historic speech to comprehend fully the power we have if we summon the courage to dream.

Your vision and dreams of the future power and often turbo-charge your financial plan. Financial benchmarks like cash flow, net-worth, return on investment, asset allocation, etc are all necessary for measuring your plans progress, no doubt. But these are numbers on a spreadsheet that unaligned with your vision and dreams are meaningless. 

Pro-Dream 2014

Now back to the pro-dream campaign….. First, if it’s been way too long since you allowed yourself the joy of dreaming, there’s no time like tomorrow to start again.

Dreaming makes you vulnerable. All it takes is a couple times of having your dreams shattered and that’s it, you promise yourself you’ll never put yourself in a position where you could get hurt like that again.

You may have grown up in a family where dreaming about a better life was not encouraged. You may have seen your parents and siblings accept life the way it was and well, that’s the way it is, life isn’t fair, etc,.

You may be someone that rarely uses your imagination and are 'just the facts' type of person. Learning to dream, learning to visualize is a brand new skill set for you. For you, learning how to dream is like learning a foreign language. (check out Shakti Gawains classic book: Creative Visualization)

And you may be like many of the clients I meet that had big, colorful dreams of the future, everything was on track, life was wonderful and out of the blue, the love of your life passes away.

If you’re too scared to dream, dream anyway!

As a holistic financial planner, having clients able to clearly articulate their vision of the future is a must have. When I ask clients how they visualize their lives in their 60's, 70's and 80's, the answers of golf, golf and more golf doesn’t cut it. For some, one of the reasons I just mentioned may be what’s holding them back. But in order to have a successful outcome when creating a financial plan, being able to dream and clearly visualize the future you imagine is crucial to that process.

The good news is, with a little patience, a pinch of TLC and encouragement, clients eventually breakthrough the fear of letting themselves dream and what happens next is as beautiful a moment as you can imagine.

Dreams that have long been dormant come back to life. Ideas that have long been tossed aside take on a new life of their own. The future suddenly looks less daunting, in fact, the future looks very promising indeed. That wonderful sense of feeling alive again cascades through your body.

You are back. Welcome home. Now get back up there in the Director’s chair where you belong, start directing this movie called ‘your life’ and always, always dare to dream big.

Photo credit Pat Chiappa