Dream Farther Than Your Barriers and Goals

Hi Leaders,

A lot of my clients are already talking about the new year with a mix of ambition, exhaustion, and pessimistic hopefulness. In these conversations, I am often trying to listen beneath what they’re saying, in order to get to the deeper currents of desire they’re maybe not aware of–desires that will actually shape how they’ll live in 2026.

Entering these conversations at the border of the year has led me again to the practice of dreamscaping as a useful coaching tool. This practice is something that’s not only immensely useful in a fun, vision-casting way, but also as a good way to energize people into taking meaningful action. (Tapping into enjoyable new things helps keep us motivated.)

In line with this, I am making our year's first Sway Skills event a time to do some collaborative dreamscaping! Grab your lunch and a pen and paper and get some reps for imagining futures that will actually move you into action. The practice is also just really fun!

From Vision to Action

In prepping for my 2026 curriculum, I came across a piece of advice in a Harvard Business Review article by Ron Carucci that struck me:

“Name the system’s story—and your own.”

Knowing how we are both mixed-up-in and also separate from the systems we’re a part of can be a really important place of transformation. 

In dreamscaping, we do a lot of work to free ourselves from “the merely practical present-tense” of our lives in order to be creative and imagine futures that can be zany, hyper-specific, and world-changing. Then we funnel this energy into action for the upcoming year. 

So I guess what I’m saying is don’t let the state of the world or your specific life conditions keep you from imagining a world that can be better for everyone, and I hope I see you at the event.