Change Challenge – Training Dreams Intro

I have evolved these ideas since I did this video.

Video Transcription:

I am Andrew Ledford and today we are going to be exploring the change challenge.

This is an 8 series workshop or presentation and it is about change because either people are trying to change something or change has found them.

But this workshop or this series of talks is going to be geared towards the kind of change that we are seeking, that we're going after. So it's the kind of change that we are trying to initiate on our own, not necessarily that, which finds us although it should help with that as well.

And we're starting off with dreams. In fact, I call this the dream yourself from chaos to clarity.

And we're going to be talking about several different aspects of dreaming.

We're going to be looking at things that we usually don't look at, becoming aware of things that we're usually not aware of. They're just back there in the background and that makes them habitual, makes them part of our unconscious.

So we want to bring some of those forward to where we become conscious of them. Once we're aware of them, it's to build awareness, once we're aware of them, then it's easier to change them. So oftentimes to find the right rhythm in life, we need to first recognize the wrong rhythm. And this is something that if you work with me, you will see quite often I will point this out. Oh, you're almost there. You're catching yourself doing it wrong. And that's the beginning of change.

So we're going to start our journey by looking at our dreamscapes, our sleeping dreams.

These are a window to the subconscious.(…) I believe Freud is the one who coined that term, that phrase.

But people from before history have been interested in dreams. And there's a good reason for that. It's not just people that dream, but we can see dreaming in other animals as well.

And this is not for just people looking for dream interpretation, let's say. It's for everybody.

So it's from frontline workers. You know, it's for people that are on the frontline, frontline workers, frontline managers, mid-level managers, CEOs, business owners. I've had a small business all my life. So that's something I'm quite familiar with. But the reason dreams are so important is because they can be a guide, a barometer to our emotional states when there's a mismatch. We think we want something, but subconsciously we're really against it. So that's one of the primary things we're going to be looking at and using dream, not dream analysis, but dream tending, dream cultivation, that sort of thing for. Because I always think of this as a good example where we want to do something in life. We have that goal. We're committed to it. We're putting resources into it. However,(…) there's something there that's holding us back, old, old, fast.

And just preventing us from actually accomplishing it. There's something over here that's competing with us getting to where we want to go. I like using eating as an example because at one time I was about 30 pounds heavier than I am now. Didn't bother me much except I had to go out and buy new clothes. That was the only thing. But really there wasn't much motivation to change.

Then one of my friends was diagnosed with pre-diabetes and I thought, you know, I'm going to start living and eating the way that would be best for her just to kind of see how difficult it is and kind of for what morals support.

And I lost about 30 pounds.(…) So I know I love eating pie. I love sweets. I love high-fatting food and not carbohydrates.(…) So cutting those out in the beginning was very difficult. And I would have never done it if I did not have a higher mission,(…) a higher purpose, something that would push me past that I want to eat.

And now I've actually kind of transcended into a whole new eating pattern that now that is my habit. And people want me to go out and eat other stuff and I just don't want to. I've changed a new level of normal, you could say.

And if any of you know me well, you will have heard me talk about Edwards Deming. He was a statistician.

He is probably best known for total quality control.(…) The pre-runner, what came before Six Sigma was the Deming system, the Showart system.

And Deming would say that the system cannot know itself.(…) And I think that we even see this with John Boyd.(…) He said that you could not test the system using that system. You could test it, but you had to use a different type of different system.

And that is what our dreams are.(…) Our dreams are our consultants, our dream consultant.(…) So some of us, you know, like if you have a business, you bring in a consultant and you hash out the difficulties that you're having with implementing certain new protocols, new procedures or changing.

You have a problem with changing your business, you bring in a consultant and they help you change. Well, at night we all get that. We have a dream consultant and the dream consultant comes along and helps us work out our problems, helps us answer our questions, helps us forget the things that are no longer useful.

And this is a very important part of dreaming and we will touch on some of these things as we go forward.

But again, one of the biggest things that we want to do with this part of the program is to develop an awareness.

An awareness of what our motivations are.(…) What are our drives for our goals,(…) our emotions,(…) our interactions with other people.

And do they match our waking realizations or waking reality to some extent match our dreaming reality? And then does that dreaming reality again relate to the waking?

And there are different levels of this type of insight, dream insight.

We're going to only be looking at a few. We can go from totally unaware to totally enlightened.

But that's not really the purpose of this little talk, these workshops or my presentations.

We want to get to a functional level. That's probably the goal is to get our dreams to where they're at a functional level that they're useful in our life and helping us accomplish our objectives,(…) our life mission, our vision.

Our higher purpose.(…) The first level is level zero.(…) Level zero, you're totally unaware. You don't even know you dream.(…) Yeah, some people they're going, I don't dream. I can never remember any of them. I don't even think I dream. We all dream. It's a biological necessity.

Helps us consolidate information.(…) Helps us forget some things. For youngsters, it's probably important for developing synaptic connections and synaptic pruning, you could say.

And there have been some very interesting studies done with imprint periods and REM sleep, and we may talk about those in the future. So level zero,(…) nothing.(…) Then we go up to level one.(…) Now this is where people start remembering some of their dreams. They're very symbolic, often very bizarre.(…) Strange, strange combination of things just all coming together and being a mix match of images.

Feelings.(…) But this is an important step. If you originally started at zero, you want to get to level one.(…) And then we have level two.(…) This is where dreams start becoming a little bit more relevant to you. You start thinking, maybe they have some meaning. Could this possibly have some bearing on either what I'm doing or what I should be doing?(…) Usually these dreams are still quite symbolic.(…) That's why dream analysis, dream interpretation was invented to help people try to understand the symbols of their dreams and how these symbols interact.

With the strangeness of their nighttime visitations, you could say.(…) Then we get to level three.(…) Now level three starts getting really interesting because now your dreams are starting to make more sense. You're starting to see your waking life being incorporated more into your dreams. You're starting to think a little bit more about your dreams while you're waking, while you're awake.(…) So they're starting to enter your waking consciousness. And then we get to the, this is probably as high as we're going to go in this series, level four. Level four, dreaming.(…) And this is pretty much where dreams are self explanatory.(…) There's not a lot of symbolism. There still can be symbolism. You start off with a symbolic dream and it shifts to a more literal dream.(…) So this is more where you start the dream incorporation into your life, your life into dream incorporated into your dreams.(…) Life starts to really integrate into your dreams. You start paying more attention to the emotional content. Who was there? The scene. You really start to think about what's going on. If you read my last book, I think I only mentioned the dream scene once, but it's sort of like a behavioral scene.(…) Start noticing the transitions, the shifts.

And you can start applying some of that to your waking life.

However, there's another level to level four, and that is the direct dream.

I think of this in two stages. There is the direct messenger dream.(…) This is where either you're interacting in your dream with somebody or something. And it gives you the answer to what you're working on.(…) Gives you the answer to your problem. Helps you figure something out.

Sometimes it's you giving the answer to somebody else, but the answer is literal. It goes from symbolic to literal.(…) And this, I think of this in a very important dream and what we,(…) what can help us reach our mission.

Our vision in life is the direct messenger dream. And then, like I say, there is another one, and this is the idea dream. Sort of like the aha moment, but it's more like you see an image. And you know that's it.

You build something in your dream.(…) You make something.(…) And that is the answer to a question. Or maybe it's a subconscious question.(…) I know my decision behavior wheel here.(…) I had a dream. Got up, made the prototype. I wasn't even so much looking for that, but I was, I have been working on a decision chart. Actually a predictability chart that uses much of the information that's on here.

So these things are the direct messenger dreams, and they're the one of the things that we want to cultivate. And again, not only the real reason for doing this isn't to have those answers so much where we have the build a build a prototype, but more for us to discover prediction errors.

The prediction errors of, I want this goal,(…) the old holdfast is keeping me from it because of something in my psyche, subconscious, spiritual nature that is not allowing me to actually get there.

And there could be a lot of things to this.(…) I know one of the things and one of my jobs, I would be more successful if I wasn't so honest. However,(…) I am. And that's just the core trait I have.

And it's going to always be compete and probably win over trying to gain advantage through misinformation line.(…) So that's just the way I am. I don't think it's the best way, but it's my way. So I think that is going to do it for today. I am wishing you the very best in life. Have a wonderful day. Bye bye.