Hey teacher leave those kids alone!
Photo by Taylor Flowe on Unsplash
Ah school days… Picture the scene.
One of my many Teachers: “Stop daydreaming Bromham and pay attention!”
Me (then): “Sorry Sir”
Me (now): “Yes, but how do you reasonably expect me to take all this shit on board, unless I can see where it’s going to take me – Or, if I should be in another class!”
(I am not advocating this as the stock response for all children of a certain age but…)
If I had a pound for every time I was caught daydreaming and reprimanded for it I would be a rich man – well I would have been free most Thursdays in between 1982 and 1989 in between the hours of 4-5pm to pursue my dreams as opposed to filling in dots on graph paper.
Over time I dreamt of playing rugby for Wales and making the crucial try saving tackle that delivered the Grand Slam in front of a worshipping Cardiff Arms Park crowd – whilst I should have been paying attention to soil structures in Physical Geography.
I saw myself commanding a company of Her Majesty’s Royal Marine Commandos and securing the safety of the British embassy in deepest darkest Africa – whilst I should have been conjugating verbs in 2nd Year Latin.
I stood hands aloft after holing the winning put to win the Open Championship at the home of golf – whilst I should have been paying more attention to the text Peace, Print and Protestantism in A Level History. (I loved O Level History – so it was slightly surprising that A Level could be such a yawn…)
There was also the time I dreamt of bumping into Eva Herzegovina at the Metro station…the least said about that the better! Suffice to say it was a damn sight more interesting than the “Push and Pull” inflation Mr Reilly was explaining in A Level Economics!
Look, there is a serious side to this. We have a responsibility as parents, friends, and team members to encourage our reports and peers to dream big. Why wouldn’t we? As business owners and leaders if we don’t, we’re negatively impacting the growth of our companies. If we have team members that can’t see the Vision – it’s our job to help them. If we don’t, we only have ourselves to blame.
Daydreaming is good… No, it’s a necessity.
Now where did I put my pair of Adidas Flankers?
