Finding The Zone: Me trying out one of the ten lessons. Dreams and making fun of it because it sounds so hokey.

The other day I reviewed the book, Find The Zone, and I discussed how I was going to try and apply some of the lessons shared in the book. Well, I did.

I decided to tackle Lesson One: Dreams

I have to be honest and tell you that one of my favorite new quotes comes from this chapter.

"I dream of the dragonfly who dreams of me."

I gave this quote to my basketball team as homework. They had to go home and think about the quote. They had to write down what this quote means.

What I think it means is that we can dream anything. Our dreams are unlimited. Our dreams are what keep us going in life. However, we must work very hard to make our dreams a reality. We must have a plan of action. This quote reminds me that we can dream whatever we want and we can give it life. We can make it a reality if we really want to. For me, I never would have expected myself to be training to run a marathon(if foot turns out okay after going to the doctor tomorrow). One year ago I would have laughed in your face and told you that you were stupid to think I could do something like this. I knocked out a half marathon last year and still am surprised in myself that I pulled it off.

So, back to the dreams. In this lesson it was suggested that a simple exercise would be to have a dream journal. It offers the idea of thinking about something prior to going to bed and then recording your dream in the morning to see what visions/ideas come about.

I will be honest. I think a dream journal and thinking about what to dream before bed sounds a little off and weird. It seems like I should have a tarot card reading. However, I put my sarcasm mind aside and decided to give it a whirl.

I thought the following question prior to falling asleep on Monday night:

"What will be needed in order for my basketball team to be successful tomorrow?"

I know, probably not a very deep question, but one that I pondered all day as I cannot stop thinking basketball during basketball season.

I chuckled to myself thinking I would not remember my dreams and all my notes I took on this book would be a waste(at least the dream notes).

I woke up several times due to my daughter coughing all night, but I did have a few dreams. Yes, I admit it. It worked.

Yes, I did write it down.

No, not in a journal, but on a bookmark in my book.

Here is what I envisioned.

1. A player diving for a loose ball out of bounds on the sideline by our team bench. What was so great was not the dive, but the fact that everyone on the bench was standing up and hooting and hollering. Emotion. Excitement. The very thing I have been asking them to do all season and something that 8th grade boys refuse to do.

2. The second vision was the other team calling a time out. We were playing so intense that the other team just could not handle the pressure and intensity we were delivering. During the time out their best player pulled out a can of paint and began painting his jersey black. Our jerseys were black as we were playing away. This dream signified in my mind that he was surrendering and wanted to play our style of basketball.

3. Not really a vision, but throughout the night my daughter kept coming into our room asking questions. I thought this was a sign to work on communication. We need to talk more. I know it is not a dream technically, but it is a dream of mine that one of my 8th grade teams would actually communicate and talk all the time on the floor.

I was rather surprised and shocked by these visions. They actually worked and the visions were realistic to what was needed in order for my team to be successful. These were actually the main things that I have been preaching to my team all year.

I am sold. I will work on this exercises more and see what insights it offers me.

However, it does leave me wondering: "Do we create the dream, or does the dream create us?"