The Kindred Spirit in Dreamers....

If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them...

Yesterday I was talking to someone that I had never met before, the call started out business related and she and I covered that part of it, but it became clear the longer we talked that we shared something. We are both dreamers. While in the course of our real world activities both of us has to deal with the practicalities of the at times harsh nature of reality, the ability to imagine and focus on what could be is not only important but necessary.

It reminded me of an article I had read quite some time ago from a business perspective using the terms Incrementalists (realists) and Completionists (dreamers). This was written from a product problem solving point of view but can be easily taken into other areas of life:

Incrementalists are realists. They have a pretty good idea of what is achievable given a problem to solve, a product to ship. They're intimately aware of how many resources are available, where the political landscape is at any given moment, and they know who knows what. They tend to know all the secrets and they like to be recognized for that fact.

Completionists are dreamers. They have a very good idea of how to solve a given problem and that answer is SOLVE IT RIGHT. Their mantra is, "If you're going to spend the time to solve a problem, solve it in a manner that you aren't going to be solving it AGAIN in three months."

The problem of course comes in if you have too many of one group or if the two groups can't find a way to work together. Or as often happens to those of us who are dreamers, the realists can't see the bigger picture and focus on one tiny little part which makes the dreamers throw their hands up in frustration and walk away. (Yes, I'm sure we dreamers can cause frustration to those who are realists as well.)

Worse yet is when neither side respects the other, it is most often the dreamer who will retreat, leaving the realist to go on their merry way creating the very self-fulfilling prophecy that the dreamer warned about. Temporary solutions are only temporary fixes. If you wrap a piece of tape around a leaking pipe sure, that fixes the problem for now. You can proudly proclaim you stopped the leak. Until of course the leak continues behind the tape and creates an even bigger hole that will end up causing more damage and costing more to fix than the initial leaking pipe.

There are times when the temporary fix makes sense, as long as it is realized it's a short term fix while a permanent one is being worked on. Using the pipe scenario, taping a pipe until the plumber can arrive within the next few days rather than paying a higher fee for an emergency service call for a leaking pipe.

That balance is what is needed, which is why? When I meet another dreamer, I not only rejoice but I feel inspired once again......