Dream Coach

Make your own Frank Chu sign here

How are people responding to the shitty economy? By pushing more and more work onto overly stressed, burnt out people, and justifying it by telling us that in “difficult times, we need to be flexible.” When I asked how much more flexible we can be when our office’s utilization is at 90%, and we work overtime and weekends, more so than any other office, there was no response.

Several responses I’ve heard, “they get paid overtime,” “we need to be seen as valuable to the firm,” and “we need to be thankful that we are still employed.”

None of those responses really answer my question of how to balance the workload with very few resources.

In the past few weeks, there has been a lot of restructuring going on as a response to some majorly missed opportunities. A lot of this involves creating new roles to supposedly aid the process. The questions I have are, “how is this going to work?” “How is my team going to be impacted by this new process?” “How does this change the current job roles?”

The response: “we probably won’t have to worry about it right now.”

…um…

Today, I received this email (sent nationally to everyone in my department)

now if this one doesn’t get you thinkin’, I’m not sure what will!

There are many different aspects that live inside of us and two of them I respectfully dubbed the Dreamer and Doubter. When it comes to pursuing our dreams, The Dreamer is often gung ho while the Doubter can provide a laundry list of concerns and issues.

After a speech in Rome, a woman with a beautiful accent asked me to tell her one of my personal dreams. Assuming I’d never see her again, I decided to share a dream I had never spoken out loud, one I had kept such a good secret that even I was beginning to forget it.

“My dream is to spend the summer writing in the Greek Islands,” I said all in one breath.

She handed me her card and replied, “I have a villa in Greece. Why don’t you come as my guest?”

I was floored and reminded that amazing things happen when we share our dreams. I was elated, or more accurately, part of me was.

Here’s a peek inside my head. See if this kind of interchange sounds familiar.

Dreamer: I am so excited!

Doubter: Not me. I don’t like this at all. It’s far away and could be dangerous.

Dreamer: Nonsense. This is my dream handed to me on a silver platter.

Doubter/Realist (they’re close cousins): Who is going to run your business while you’re away?

Dreamer: My fabulous team whom I completely trust.

Doubter: Well, how’s it going to look to your clients that you are out of the country for three months?

Dreamer: I think as a Dream Coach, it’s going to look pretty good.

When you are stuck, procrastinating or worrying, chances are your Doubter has taken over. If ignored, it can sabotage your dreams. So how do you deal with it? Turn the volume down a notch and the Doubter simply becomes the Realist, the part that wants to know where the time and money will come from for your venture.

But before you turn down the Doubter, hear from it. It will give you valuable information such as a list of obstacles that you can manage later. Freedom comes as you appreciate its wisdom and insight rather than judging it as the enemy.

If you never deal with your doubt and you meet another Doubter on the road, their doubt will magnify yours. However, if you have worked with your own doubt, next time a Doubter challenges you, by contrast it will be the opportunity to deepen your commitment and conviction to your dream.

So being a realist in the business world is a bad thing?

I should also mention that the person who wrote this, my boss’ boss, is coming to visit my office in May to check up on me. He doesn’t think I support “his vision” and also thinks that my team doesnt support it bc of me.

I really want to tell him that nobody in their right mind would support “the vision.” Especially not anyone in this office. Imagine if I went into partner meetings talking about “the vision” from my “dream coach.”