4 Feb 2023 · 8 min
Thomas Anglero recounts a vivid dream about playing with a child and reflects on reconnecting with your inner child. He shares a childhood memory of a pet rock and argues that playfulness and joy at work aren't luxuries but necessary resistance to rules that suppress happiness.
Hello and welcome to the Soul of Innovation podcast. I am the host, Thomas Anglero, and my mission for this podcast is to share with you those private thoughts and reflections that I have being one of the top keynote speakers around the world on technology, motivation, and innovation. I hope you truly enjoy all the lessons I share, all the dots I connect that sometimes are just really difficult to get out. But it's all for you. I truly hope you enjoy this episode. Welcome to the Soul of Innovation podcast. I am Thomas Anglero, and I want to share with you a powerful reflection that was given to me while I was sleeping last night. Let me share with you this short story. You ever have a dream that in the dream, somewhere along the line in the dream, you realize you're dreaming? That's what happened to me last night. And what I was doing in the dream was I was having the time of my life playing with a little kid. Whatever the little kid wanted to do, I was doing it. Rolling around the ground, rolling around the ground, throwing a ball back and forth, laughing, going up and down a slide in a playground, doing everything that this kid wanted to do. I didn't know who the kid was. He's just, just having fun. And then it hit me, the importance of spending time playing with a child. We don't realize it, but when we spend time playing with a child, we're connecting with our inner self, our past self. That child within us that, because society today, because we're adults or we're older, responsibilities, kids, mortgages, that child has no time to come out and play. But when you are with a child, you're more excited than you normally are, and you don't know why. And that is because society rules now are It's okay to play like a child. It's okay to roll in the dirt. It's okay to run up and down the slide in the playground. It's okay to make funny noises. It's okay to giggle. It's okay to skip. It's okay. So let me ask you a question: why are you letting society dictate to you how you are? You are that child. You enjoy skipping, laughing, playing, rolling around the ground, rolling around the sand when you go to a beach. You haven't changed. It— the epiphany hit me as I was in that dream and I realized I'm dreaming. I said, wow, what a dream that the child is allowed to play. The child within you, the child within me, is allowed to play all the time. Why are we limiting this child? I think this dream came to me because I was in a meeting where there was a whole bunch of people and everybody was being very serious. And I think at some point in the meeting, you know, it was like not indirectly not allowed to smile. If you've ever been in one of these meetings, right, there was— and I was thinking Yet if you turn the clock forward a couple hours and it's the evening and it's a Friday night and everybody's celebrating, then with all the alcohol flowing, you're allowed to laugh and, and drink and make funny noises, tell stories and fall down, and that's okay. But turn back the clock 6 hours and you're in front of a PC or in a room, you have to be all serious. Who set those rules? Who told you how to behave and when to behave? And why are you listening to them? I keep thinking about how much fun and how happy I was playing with this kid. Doing whatever this kid wanted to do. And it seemed— it was amazing how no matter how much time went by, this kid just had more and more things for us to do that was more and more fun. I was like, God, this is like a, a living entity of fun. I realized that fun in that kid was me, that I'm a living entity of fun, that you are a living entity of fun. It's just that time has gone by and we've given our fun away or locked it up and let someone else tell us when it's time to have fun, when it's time to let that little person inside of us come out. And that's wrong. Some of the frustration that you have, some of the frustration that you feel, is because you're not you all the time. That little girl, that little boy inside of you that you remember vaguely, maybe from your past, but you remember the feeling. You remember the level of happiness. You remember that doll. You remember that book. You remember that toy. For me, it was a rock. I had a pet rock. Long story. It was the most amazing rock ever. When you put this rock against your face, it felt like it was soft. I'll never forget that rock. Found it in Central Park walking with my parents one day. Fell in love with that rock. Had it for years. And yet at this moment, I smile when I think about that rock because it connects me with my youth, it connects me with my happiness, it connects me with— I found a rock that made me happy. Today, as an adult, I find a rock that makes me happy sounds very strange. But why? Why is it okay To be happy with the simplest things when we were a child, and those same exact things today, it sounds strange. Who said so? Go forth and spread beauty and light. Reflect on the rules that you're living by, moment to moment, day to day. Are you living by your rules in every moment? Are you happy as you can be in every moment you can? It is okay to be happy at work. It's okay to smile at work. It's okay to be the only person in the meeting that's constantly smiling. It's okay to be always the person who is constantly just skipping in the office, just feeling good. You'll get some enemies because people will be like, why is that person always happy? But that's okay. Tap into your inner youth. Tap into you. Be you. Do not let society tell you who you are. You know who you are. You know how you want to feel all the time. Be it. Do it. And if you need help to reconnect, then take a moment and remember when you were a child rolling around the dirt on a playground, up and down the slides, playing with a ball. How much fun was that? And now you're happy again. It's that easy. I'm Thomas Anglero. From the bottom of my heart, from the depths of my soul, I love you. Until next time. Thank you for listening to that episode. If you want to contact me, you can contact me on my website at anglero.com, and you can also subscribe to the newsletter, or you can find me anywhere on social media with Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter. Thank you so much, and I hope to hear from you very soon.
