How can we encourage daydreamers to do something practical?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So if somebody is spending too much time day dreaming, how can we encourage them to do something practical, instead of just wasting their time or spending too much time in that? The first thing is that we have to know that our control on other people is limited.
So sometimes we are able to influence others, sometimes we may not be able to influence others, and for some people dreaming is a substitute for acting, for others dreaming is a spur for acting. So in general, if a person is habituated to doing just dreaming, then, just, if that is the way they are, then it may be very difficult to change them, and then they are never going to achieve their potential, and our trying to point out things to them again and again, that may simply come off as nitpicking for them. So sometimes some people are not changeable, or at least not immediately changeable, so we may just have to accept them for the way they are, and leave it at that, but that is not always the case.
Usually, people who have some dreams, they also would like to implement those dreams, so if we can connect, if they tell that, yes, no, we can do this, we can do that, we can appreciate them, and then we can tell them, we can bring the, with appreciative encouragement, bring the discussion down to a practical level, okay, yes, this is wonderful, how can we implement it practically, or what are you trying to do practically, and we can offer some suggestions, maybe you could do this, maybe you could do that also, but the point is, by appreciative redirection, that means we appreciate the idea, but after that we bring it down to the practical level, then they will also be forced to think about the practicals. So, the, you see Prabhupada about him it is said that his head was in the clouds, but his feet were firmly on the ground, he was thinking when he was just, he had no money at all, he wanted to live in India, he was thinking of going to America. So, many people thought of it as utopian, but then Prabhupada did practical things, meeting this person, trying to get a contact here, trying to get a contact there.
So, in general, if we appreciatively redirect people’s thoughts towards practicalities, then that is the best thing we can do to help them, help them get things done. And more importantly, if we ourselves are also both having a vision and also doing whatever it takes to implement the vision, then people will see, it is usually their actions speak louder than words. So, they will see that, you know, I am just thinking, talking big big things and nothing I am doing.
But here is someone who is also doing something, they are talking and they are also doing practical things. That way, by first acknowledging that we may not have unlimited control, we may not be able to control some people or change some people, then by appreciative redirection and then by practical example, we can help people to move from the phase of dreaming to the phase of acting.