Effective Daydreaming

Three general types of daydreaming have been described:

•  Distractible daydreaming: low levels of attention control and difficulty concentrating can lead to low levels of conscientiousness, the personality trait most often linked with success

• Dysphoric daydreaming: thinking hostile, aggressive fantasies about others, and dwelling on anxiety, gilt, fear of failure, and obsessive negative thoughts.

• Dynamic daydreaming: This is linked with positivity, openness to new experiences, using imagination to explore new and useful ideas—in almost any genre. This type has been linked with happiness and high levels of creativity.

 If you want to become involved in an area you love, imagine in your mind’s eye what that would look like. Then do something constructive every day to move yourself toward that vision—sitting there waiting for gold to drop in your lap is generally unhelpful. Sure, something may fall into your lap:  autumn leaves, raindrops, bird droppings . . . but it may have nothing to do with your vision and aim. Stay positive. If one idea doesn’t work, try another. You may not “run the company,” but you may find yourself in a very rewarding branch of said company—or you may even you start your own! Be willing to collaborate. It is said that Edison worked with 14 other inventors and thousands of experiments to perfect the filament for incandescent light bulbs. The sky is the limit.