I dream a lot. Full color, full sound. Always have. One year Mom bought me a dream book for Christmas, and I was excited to learn the meaning of the images I saw most frequently. Most of what I dreamt was not covered in the book. What does that mean?

Recently I had a dream in which I was incoming CEO of a well-known retail chain. On the day of the all-company announcement, I was inviting various department leaders to take a few minutes on stage to introduce themselves, share their hometown, and briefly describe their work. Several departments did not have a current leader and several declined my invitation, fearing public speaking.

I asked who was going to kick off the meeting and introduce me. In response, several pages of what were intended as a run-of-show script were thrust before me. They included speaker names in bold-face type, cryptic notes on content, and arrows re-arranging the order of presentations.

Dismayed, and frankly angry, I had mere seconds to collect my thoughts. My first inclination was to hold up the pages as evidence of what does not work. Instead I set them aside, drew a breath and began to speak slowly and purposefully.

I introduced myself. Gave a moment of background. Stood looking into the audience of hundreds of fellow associates, co-workers and colleagues. I thanked the individual(s) who created the outline, saying it showed an intention to deliver announcements that mattered to each of us. I said we were not going to do things in the way I perceived them that morning. We would not govern by mystery, hidden agendas, or power brokering. We would not toss projects to one another without understanding what we were seeking to accomplish. We would never allow one another to be placed in a public spotlight without thorough preparation. And we would never proceed until we were ready.

I acknowledged my own invitations to department leaders that morning as a mistake and said how easy it is to fall back on free-lancing to fill time or attempt to accomplish an outcome that was unspecified. Then I woke up.

As I thought about the dream for the next hour or so, I wondered what it was trying to tell me about my own current behavior. What was I doing that was unclear, unstructured and without a specific purpose? I chuckled as I thought I’d better get a notepad to begin listing things.

We live in a particularly noisy moment with uncertainty and anxiety levels running high. What will happen with the economy? Will global unrest impact our lives? Will AI take over the planet? What will happen to me? We simply don’t know these answers yet. Taking time to say no to things that don’t work is important. More important, however, is saying yes to things that help us organize information, apply it to our circumstances and make decisions about where to take the next step.

In order to do these things, we need to stop frenzy, whether it exists in our thinking, actions or emotions. Taking a breath, letting our shoulders relax, and being still are essential to starting anew.

My dream was a catalyst. I’m curious to see where it leads. For now, I will simply be quiet.