Remember when you were a kid and you could get lost in thought just imagining your dream job or what you were going to do during recess? Where have those days gone? It is so hard these days to get lost in thought that’s not centered around schoolwork or social anxieties. With constant distractions, the temptation to spend every free moment scrolling instead of thinking as well as the simple reality of growing up, daydreaming has fallen to the wayside. Imagination is a pastime and, having been discouraged by our elementary school teachers, it is an art we lose naturally over time. 

Daydreaming, and imaginative thought in general, is both necessary and valuable. Creative and divergent thinking are deeply human practices that have extraordinary benefits. Allowing your mind to wander can alert you to your deepest desires and help you realize what is really important to you, what you want, what lights you up and what fulfills you. It can add value and direction to our lives.  

A plethora of research is devoted to daydreaming, or “thinking for pleasure,” linking it to creativity, self-awareness and even intelligence, according to a recent study called “Ode to Positive Constructive Daydreaming” published in the Frontiers in Psychology. I would be remiss not to mention its physiological benefits too. Daydreaming has similar benefits to meditation, including reducing stress and anxiety and increasing pain tolerance, according to a study from the University of Wisconsin. 

Contrary to what we’ve been told, allowing your mind to wander can be a productive exercise –– one that is especially important in college. Coming to college allows you to create your own life for the first time. Choosing your focus of study, your career goals and how you spend your days requires you to know what you want for your own life. As we discern the next steps, how can we know what we want if we never think about it? The sky’s the limit for your future. Feel free to imagine what that could mean. 

As a second-semester senior, I’ve been spending a lot of my time job-searching. As I go through the application and interview processes, I get stuck on wondering what the most practical choice is, rather than steering my efforts toward where I want to end up. Recently, I realized that my life since coming to college has been lacking in dreaming and deficient in imagining possibilities. I’ve been stuck reasoning through what should be, rather than what could be.  

Everyone wants to do great things; be a free thinker. The most successful people are those who come up with a new idea or take an original direction, but you can’t be original unless you allow yourself to think outside the box. Maybe the first step toward building a meaningful life is giving yourself permission to imagine one. 

So here’s my unconventional career advice: get lost in thought. Spend an hour imagining the best possible life for yourself and what that involves. But talking about your dreams is just as important as dreaming. Surround yourself with people who dream and encourage you to dream too. Sometimes the most productive thing you can do is nothing at all –– just letting your mind wander.