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It’s a dream of new possibilities. Even in my same old space, my same old-same old life, there are new ideas, new dreams, new rooms - all just waiting for me to turn around and discover them. I just have to open the door.

Have you ever had a dream like this?

In the dream, you’re walking through your house - the house you’ve lived in for years and suddenly you find a new door that you have never seen before. Maybe it’s a different color - or maybe it looks just the same as all the other doors in your house. You open this surprising new door and find an extra room that you didn’t know about. Except, in my dream, it wasn’t just a whole new room, it was a whole extra wing of the house. Several big empty rooms with polished hardwood floors and sunlight streaming in through big paned windows - right there in the same old house I was living in. In my dream, I’m amazed by the empty rooms and by the extra space suddenly in my life. I open the windows and let cool fresh air into the rooms. Look at all the room I have. I’m thrilled by the possibilities!

This “new room” dream seems to appear when I need it, when I’m feeling stuck or limited, or simply discouraged by life. It’s such an expansive feeling to realize that your life has so much more possibility than you thought it did. When you are in the same old place in your life, maybe feeling stuck in a not so good situation, or feeling that all the great chances have passed you by, it’s a good thing to look around and realize that your life is not limited, that there is more room that you had imagined. Dreams of new rooms invite us to open our minds to the possibility that we have even greater potential than we thought. These dreams encourage us to look beyond our “limitations” and begin to believe that we can move beyond them.

I’ve always been a big student of dreams. I’ve journaled my dreams since I was in college and studied Jungian dream analysis. I learned to pay attention to the messages I find within. I encourage clients to write down their dreams and engage with them - talk them through and find the wisdom inside. This particular dream is a metaphorical reminder that there are still new rooms in my life to explore, new journeys to take, new things to try. It causes me to look around in my psyche for new places to grow, new parts of my inner self to explore and develop. What new parts of myself are there to discover? A little personal growth is always good thing.

No matter your age, whether you are almost 30 and feeling oh-so-old or 55 and feeling younger every day, each sunrise brings new possibilities and exciting chances to try something different, to learn fresh skills and crafts and to rekindle your passion for your work and life.

You just have to open the door. What are you waiting for?

What dreams do you have? What is the wisdom your dreams have to offer?

“We are such stuff
as dreams are made on, and our little life
is rounded with a sleep.”

— Prospero from The Tempest - William Shakespeare

Just a little Friday wisdom. Amidst all the advice to follow your bliss, it's important to remember to take your brain with you. By all means, explore what makes you come alive in life. Take a good deep look at your personality and passions and find work that makes your heart sing. But remember to put on your practical hat as well. Before you quit your job to follow your heart and open your own business or move to Nova Scotia or whatever your dream is, it's important to ask the "Is your dream realistic?" question. Is is possible? There may be a lot of answers to that question - and you may have a lot of nay-sayers in your life giving you the wrong answer. But often the underlying question - or the question you need to ask is - "Am I really willing to do what it takes to achieve this goal? Am I willing to pay the price, to put in the work, to make this dream a reality? How far am I willing to stretch myself?"

Take some time to do the research and find out what it will really take to make your dream a reality. Talk to people who are doing it. Make a list of pros and cons. Identify the first steps you would need to take. Get out your calculator and run the numbers - the real numbers. As you do this, take note of your excitement level. Are you still passionate about this dream? Feeling a little scared is good, but does the anxiety keep you awake at night? Do you get more excited as you work the details? Are you even more committed to this new path now that you have a better idea of what it will entail?

Follow your heart... but take your brain with you. You might just surprise yourself and make your dream come true!