I was a big daydreamer in grade school. Other kids teased me for zoning out and referred to me as, “out to lunch.” Adults reprimanded me for “building castles in the sky.” One teacher told me I was an absent-minded wool-gatherer… Huh?

My daydreaming was so pervasive that while doing homework I would read entire chapters and not be able to recall any facts from what I had just read. Even after re-reading the same chapters, nothing looked familiar.

When an adult first told me I was on cloud nine, I literally looked up.

Well some things never change or, rather, not much has changed. My attention span is so short that I read magazines, not books. I will only read an article after first confirming it is less than two pages in length. Anything longer seems unmanageable and overwhelming.

My mind is restless. I’m always searching for interesting stuff to focus on. Sometimes, however, the most interesting stuff is happening in my internal world.

A wandering mind is typically seen as counter-productive. However, my wandering mind has become an important part of my creativity. It has helped me to create strategies, plan activities, organize my thoughts, and explore options.

There are merits to daydreaming, especially for those of us who pay attention to them.

Earlier today, I daydreamed about creating a tap dancing app whereby choreographers could enter a piece of music or a time code sequence and the app would scan various tap steps and foot and motion patterns to determine which ones work best given the selected music. I don’t know if I’ll follow-through with this idea, but I enjoyed the process.

Daydreaming is the mind’s way of revealing to you what you really want to be, do and have. Pay attention and write down the interesting ideas or thoughts you have. Allow your rational mind to rest – don’t let it talk you out of your daydreams.

Embrace your ideas and take action towards achieving them.

In a world where we’re inundated with e-mails, texts, tweets, RSS feeds, blogs, newsletters and Facebook – it’s nice to temporarily check out by going within.

“One man’s daydreaming is another man’s novel.”  ~Grey Livingston

So what about you?  Were you a daydreamer?  Have any of those daydreams come to fruition?