Follow your childhood dreams… and dream together
“Make your life a dream, and your dream a reality.”
— Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Dear readers,
In 2025, I’ve chosen to center my New Year’s wishes around childhood dreams. This reflection came to me one morning, as I listened to my six-year-old daughter enthusiastically listing the 23 different careers she would love to have one day. Dancer, scientist, veterinarian, explorer, astronaut… Her imagination has no limits, and her eyes, filled with wonder, reminded me of an essential truth we so often forget: everything is possible.
As we grow older, many of us disconnect from our dreams. Reality, lack of time or resources, fear of failure, or external judgments often silence that inner voice that once guided us as children. We cut ourselves off from our heart and our body—our true compasses.
Yet those dreams never completely disappear. They linger, sometimes buried deep within us, waiting for our attention.
So what if this year, we took one step toward them? Not to change our whole life at once, but to align our values, our talents, and our deep joy with our daily actions.
Today, I invite you to dream boldly.
Because taking care of ourselves and of the world also means taking care of our dreams.
Why dreams are a driving force
Dreams are not a luxury or a simple ideal; they are vital energy. They give meaning to our actions, reignite our creativity, and nurture our joy of living. Reconnecting with our dreams is reconnecting with a part of ourselves we often set aside. They are not nostalgia, but a powerful force—a momentum that moves us toward a more aligned, joyful, and just life.
But for this to happen, we must allow ourselves to dream, to listen, and to move forward step by step.
So today, I ask you: how are you nurturing your childhood dreams?
Exercise: Reconnecting with your childhood dreams
Find a calm place where you feel at ease.
Take an object from your childhood: a toy, a drawing, a photo, a madeleine… anything that brings you back to when you were 7, 8, or 9.
Close your eyes, breathe deeply, and let images come to you:
• What did you love to play as a child?
• Where did you enjoy going?
• Which activities made you lose all sense of time?
• What felt essential to you back then? What made you happy, proud, fully yourself?Let emotions, sensations, and words arise. After a few minutes, gently open your eyes and write everything down—activities, values, emotions, memories.
Reflect on how you could weave these elements into your current life:
• If you loved to explore, plan a trip or try a new activity.
• If nature brought you peace, spend more time outdoors.
• If you loved performing, why not join a theater class?The goal isn’t to revolutionize your life overnight, but to move with intention toward a life that reflects your true values and aspirations.
Reconnecting with your childhood dreams means rediscovering a precious guide to orient your life toward what really matters.
Dreaming together in the workplace
Dreams don’t stop at personal aspirations—they can transform our professional environments too.
I recall a visualization exercise in an organization where each participant closed their eyes and imagined their ideal team and work environment one year into the future. Instead of focusing on constraints, figures, or strategic imperatives, this exercise sparked new ideas and desires: different ways of working together, values to cultivate, inspiring projects, and a more human dynamic. They left feeling re-energized and more united than ever.
When I ask participants in my programs about their true drivers at work, the answers are never about performance or results. What comes up again and again is the human:
• The joy of seeing colleagues.
• The desire to learn and grow together.
• Above all, the feeling of building something meaningful.Perhaps these are the dreams we should cultivate to reignite engagement and enthusiasm in our organizations: imagining together, dreaming together, and building a professional future where people and community come first.
Because a shared dream is a shared vision—one that guides and unites us.
Dreaming together for a more joyful society
Imagine a society where everyone finds their place, where individual talents serve the greater good, where human connections are built on solidarity, and where the environment is respected.
How can we bring such collective dreams to life?
Reconnect with others. Dreams grow from human connection. Find your tribe—the people who share your values and aspirations, who inspire you, and with whom you can imagine a brighter future. Even small communities can be powerful engines of change.
Let art pave the way. Art makes our aspirations visible. It reconnects us with our emotions and shows us what a desirable future could look like. Movies, poetry, novels, music, painting—art inspires, shakes us up, and unites us.
• Think of Tomorrow by Cyril Dion—a film that showcases real solutions for a sustainable future.
• Reread The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry with fresh eyes.
• Explore inspiring works like The Great Vertigo by Pierre Ducrozet or Jean-Pierre Goux’s Blue Revolution.Create spaces for dialogue and imagination. Shared dreams emerge when we dare to talk about them. Circles, workshops, or even a conversation over coffee can spark collective visions.
Move forward step by step—together. No big dream is achieved alone. What matters is concrete, shared action: organizing a local solidarity project, joining community initiatives, or supporting associations for a better future. Every step counts—especially when taken with others.
Resources to inspire you
Documentary: Tomorrow (Cyril Dion & Mélanie Laurent) – a celebration of resilience and collective solutions.
Books: The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupéry), The Great Vertigo (Pierre Ducrozet), Blue Revolution (Jean-Pierre Goux).
Talk: Randy Pausch’s TEDx Achieving Your Childhood Dreams Alive—a moving final lecture about living fully and pursuing your goals.
Music: What a Wonderful World (Louis Armstrong) and Imagine (John Lennon)—timeless anthems of beauty, hope, and unity.
Let’s dare to dream again—together.
Let us take care to dream, build, and act for a world that inspires us.
I wish you a 2025 full of dreams and actions.
Alice VIVIAN