I had a great think day yesterday.  It was really good to get out of my normal routine and spend some time planning and thinking.  Like I said yesterday, my goal is to do this once a month.  My main focus is to spend some time thinking about bigger picture ideas and directions for my life and business.

Here are 7.5 ideas to help jumpstart your own Pray Day, Think Day, Dream Day:

1. Carry a notepad with you where ever you go.  As you move about the day, ideas will come to you and you'll need a place to jot them down.

2. Change environments.  Make sure you don't spend all of your time at one place. 

3. Don't be isolated all day.  Go out for lunch and talk to people.   I chose to eat alone (which I really enjoy), but I did chat with my server and host at the restaurant.  Just getting some social interaction helps clear your mind from the focus of the morning.

4. Ideas come at random times.  Break up your idea sessions by thinking about lots of different topics.  When I'm thinking about one topic an idea/concept for a completely separate topic becomes clear in my mind.   Write it down then.

5. Don't go entirely web-based.  Use paper and a pen.  Nothing beats a good old notepad and pen for brainstorming.

6. Watch a video on TED.com.   There are a lot of creative speakers and awesome ideas to be found on TED.com.   The point is to free your mind to dream about other ideas and concepts which will lead to focus on the topics you're pondering.    Here's a link to a video I watched yesterday by Seth Godin on Tribes:  http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/seth_godin_on_the_tribes_we_lead.html

7. Read a non-industry or unrelated book.  I was doing some business planning most of the day yesterday, so I chose to spend some time periods reading my Bible.  It allowed my mind to rest on the business ideas and gave me fresh perspectives when I returned.

7.5 Be prepared for a bit a catch-up the following day.  You might feel behind, but the time you take to get away is so much more valuable than the time it will take to play a bit of catch-up.

So, there you have it.  Now GO.  Schedule a day in your calendar to escape and do your own think day.  Let me know how it turns out for you!

   

[image by chris gin]

Today's a good day for me. I'm forcing myself to take a day away from my office to think and pray. I say "forcing" because the daily grind of projects, tasks and software development can literally suck my time and cause me to forget about the important things. Sure, managing projects and tasks is extemely important. My business is a service business and I love our clients. But if I let myself get bogged down in the "call of the urgent", I'll never give myself the time to think and plan and work on strategy.

I know I'll be more productive in the day-to-day details when I take the time to get away and do big-picture thinking. Some call it a "dream day". Some call it "strategic planning". Some call it a "think day". A friend of mine called it a "pray day". It's all of this for me.

One of my goals for 2010 is to take one day a month purely to get out of my daily routine and retreat to think and pray.

   

[image by eric brian ouano]

I was doing some reflecting on my dream day and re-reading some notes.    I found that I had a lot of notes surrounding 1 Chronicles 28.

I have a NIV Study Bible, so I really liked the notes called "Principles To Live By" next to this chapter.

1.  Get to know God personally.

2.  Learn God's commands and discover what he wants you to do.

3.  Worship God with wholehearted devotion.

4.  Serve God with a willing mind.

5.  Be faithful.

6.  Don't become discouraged.

I think I could dig into each of these a whole lot more.   Any one thing in particular stand out to you?

Definitely glad I did the Dream Day afternoon. I’m working to build that up to an entire day. What if I could do it once a week?

I found a park and it was empty, probably because it was raining. There was a huge covered picnic shelter, so it was great for me. I started reading my Bible, but I kept hearing some random scratching coming from a nearby garbage can. My curiosity arose so I went to check it out. I thought maybe a cat, squirrel or raccoon had climbed inside and was stuck. Well, after a couple of minutes I decided to kick the can over. Out popped a raccoon and it just froze there. Then, it got its bearings and took off for the woods. I told Holli I saved a raccoon’s life and she just thought I was crazy. She said I was lucky it didn’t attack me. Hmm, that wouldn’t be good.

So I kept on dreaming and then all of a sudden this big dog shows up from out of nowhere. It seemed friendly, but didn’t have a collar on, so I didn’t mess with it. It eventually left.

My mind is swirling around with lots of good scripture I was reading and listening to some of things God was trying to tell me. I took a lot of great notes and will definitely be doing this again. I spent most of my time in 1 Chronicles. Good stuff about David.

This afternoon I'm leaving the office to go escape to a quiet place (I'm thinking a park with a covered picnic area because it's raining). I'm going to do a 1/2 day Dream Day. Basically, I'm taking my Bible, my journal and a pen. Ray Hilbert from Truth at Work challenged us to do this and I've been excited to fit it into my schedule for the past month. I might stop at a starbucks first and grab a yummy drink before heading to the park.

We'll see what God has in store for me and what He wants to tell me. I know it's going to be good. I love to get away and just dream, but I never seem to take the time to do it.

One thing that I can guarantee is that some issue will pop up this afternoon at work. Seriously, any time I try and get away and do something like this, some issue arises. It's like the devil knows and is trying to mess up my mood.

Hebrews 10:23
Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.

Happy Dreaming....

Do you dream? Not sleeping dreams, but real-life, awake, in the moment dreams. What are they?

I am definitely a dreamer. I love to sit around and just dream up new ideas and concepts. Do you include God in your dreams?

A passage of scripture that I really like is Isaiah 55:9: "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.".

I also like Ephesians 3:20: "Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us"

I definitely try to include God in my dream time. Afterall, if He can do immeasurably more than I can imagine, why not include Him in the brainstorms.

Think about some of the dreams you're dreaming and see if God can help out to clarify, crystalize, or even lend a helping hand.