Turn on your daydreams again...

Dear Fellow Former Players & Friends,

Sometimes we must admit to ourselves that we’re not always at our best. I mean I’m doing things. I’m getting my work done, but I’m dry! The enthusiasm is not bursting! For me too much working from home is like being lost in the desert. I want the morning commute. The community that lives in these streets is my motivation to live and write. So, I decided to set myself free in these streets. When I see life, talk to people, and read other’s words I write more. I apologize for not sharing more, yet I will use the pandemic one last time as an excuse. I promise. No more excuses.

A recent article I read on spending time in Nice, France made me drift away. One’s mind is powerful, allowing us glimpses of what life can be if we are as fearless in real life as we are in our daydreams. Ah Epiphany.

I thought about how I use my mind. I assumed it was time well spent daydreaming about the material things I don’t have and maybe don’t need, things I want to accomplish and visualizing the me without flaws. My daydreams are elaborate and I’m always victorious. This led me to do a little research and I learned daydreaming can be a form of mindfulness. “Daydreaming associated with playful, vivid, wishful thoughts, and free from psychological conflict is positive constructive daydreaming. This is what we want.” (Sam Brinson)

A funny thing happens to me physically in my daydreams. I become energized. I feel joy. I feel alive like I lived it. But wait I imagined it? What? LOL!! Now I want it. Scientifically during daydreams alpha brain waves increase thereby lowering stress, reducing anxiety, decreasing depression, and improving creative thinking. I feel good and I start to gain confidence…

My dreams meet my reality as a self-fulfilling prophecy. I see the rooms that I want to live in. I daydream about the relationship I want to have with my wife. My daydreams are practice. They are an easel holding a canvas I can erase if I don’t like what I see. Eventually there is a vision, a plan, steps. Then parts of the plan become priority.

I don’t know how it happens, but it does. I get what I want. What I dreamed. It’s not always perfect. Sometimes it doesn’t look right on the first try. But eventually it does.

Turn on your daydreams again and promise to never give up.

As former players we rise to the occasion repeatedly. We can’t help it, we get up… sometimes on our own sometimes with help from a teammate. Here grab my hand and get me up. I will get you next time. I promise.

Daydreaming is prophesizing. Daydreaming is planning. Planning is action and action creates an opportunity to see who you want to be and the life you want to live.

Andre Collins

Executive Director
Professional Athletes Foundation
NFL Player 1990-1999