The Road to Dreaming…TMYD!
Just one of the many amazing things about working at Common Thread Collective (aka CTC) is the Tell Me Your Dream [TMYD] program. CTC exists to help entrepreneurs achieve their dreams and views every employee as an entrepreneur of their own life.
This is something every employee participates in from the moment they join our company and is a program that provides you with the unique (and exclusive) opportunity to sit down with a Certified Dream Guide, who is MFT professional, to discover, unlock, and pursue your dreams.
Once connected with your designated Dream Guide, you have regularly scheduled sessions twice a month which will pave the road to unlock and go beyond what you could have imagined for yourself. Pushing past barriers or limitations we can put on ourselves which feel like we could never achieve that or merely I just wasn’t meant to achieve my dream - it is something for other people.
AThese are all things I have faced, especially in my adult life and when I look back on them, can say made way of pushing down my own thoughts of dreaming over time. It was also something that made me feel like I was stagnant and that while there was a minor kindling of dreaming thoughts, I felt they could never be achieved with the limitations and professional realities at the time.
CTC believes that each of us has specific dreams and desires that help us live a life of purpose and significance, and one in my opinion allows for us to fully embrace and unleash our truest authentic selves.
“Because true belonging only happens when we present our authentic, imperfect selves to the world, our sense of belonging can never be greater than our level of self-acceptance.””
Meeting with my Dream Guide, Jessica, we began to dive into so many elements of who I am, what I desire to become, what my values are, and what is it that I am most passionate about.
I had began my “personal development” journey towards the later half of 2019. After experiencing most of the year dealing with a lot of work stress (which I know we can all relate too) and taking a leave of absence to help my family go through the process of my dad receiving a bone marrow transplant, I was unsure of what this process would entail and what it would bring up.
I think it is easy to say that my initial thoughts were “oh yeah, I have already done this work” and “oh yeah, I know what to expect here.” Which easily could have made way to feelings of just phoning in my sessions with Jess. The great thing is that Jess got it, got my journey up to that point, and got how to push me through to help me dig deeper.
The great thing with that was I got to see and experience first hand, all the hard work previously done and insights previously made really gave me the understanding that I must truly be onto something if a bulk of this still reigns consistent and true.
The length of time one goes through Dream Exploration can vary and mine was slated to take about 5 months, with a goal of being able to Declare my dream at our July Dream Day.
What is a Dream?
A Dream is simply a new aspirational identity you want to become.
We believe that something significant changes i you when you achieve your dream. You have been transformed from mere Dreamer to Dream Achiever.
Who will you become?
-TMYD
During my Dream Exploration, we started with an “I Am Exercise”, where we had to list out our top 5 “I Am” statements without taking a ton of time thinking about them. From there, we dove into chatting about what it one was, what it represented, and do they truly fit. My were: I am smart, I am funny, I am positive, I am resilient, and I am ME!
One of the next times we met we talked about my family of origin and talking through what the environment was and how dreaming was viewed and how that related to my own achievement of personal goals and dreams. This was absolutely fascinating to me, as I was able to see the correlation of what I viewed as a child to how I related to my dreams as an adult.
Being able to take an inventory of my goals and dreams was tremendous. Ironically enough, as an adult it has been hard for me to view myself as a Dreamer - well outside of a Day Dreamer that is.
But being able to take an inventory of dreams and goals I’ve had during my adult life, see the reasons behind them AND the achievement, I started to shift my thinking back to “of course I am a Dreamer.” I began to self-identify more to this concept and the self-definition of being a Dreamer.
Working through the Values and Vision portion was one of the areas reconfirming my personal development work in the past and the values and virtues I identified then still rang true today. My virtues of Authenticity, Vitality, Spirited Moxie, and Humble Fierceness, and my top values of:
Rosie the Riveter (my value around productivity, efficiency, hard work, achievement, and overcoming obstacles)
Audrey Hepburn (my value around beauty and presentation)
Leslie Knoppe (my value around communication and humor)
Abe Lincoln (my value around honesty, trust, and integrity)
One Thing Remains (my value around faith and spirituality)
Once I had the opportunity to define and confirm these with Jess, I was then able to see the correlation and connection of them with the feelings of passion and purpose in my life.
“When your values are clear to you, making decisions become easier.”
Working through my values and virtues being able to see the connections to my bigger sense of purpose, it became more apparent I was onto something with the initial spark of my 5-Year dream self back at Vision Quest 2020.
The passion and purpose ringing consistent and true for me all circled around:
being creative and innovative
giving back to others
speaking truth and making a positive impact
sharing my experience, journey and story
encouraging and empowering others to be their truest authentic selves
Going through the TMYD process highlighted these and if anything, they had not lessened in importance over time but become stronger and ever more pressing. The time was now to lean in and get comfortable with the unknown and uncomfortable. There was no longer a choice to identify with my previous “I don’t think my dreams come true” self. That person was gone and now replaced with a self-proclaimed Dreamer!
