I’ve been having the same stress dream for years.  You’ll be familiar with the drill: I realize only days before the final exam of a class–usually calculus or Spanish–that I will fail as I haven’t been to class or done the work for most of the semester.  Often the reason for this impending doom is optimism: throughout the semester I thought I would catch up next week.  Sometimes it’s a time management issue: the class is the third class I have on Wednesdays and I get caught up in my preparations for the first two.    Always, it is too late to drop the course, there is no way for me to be ready in time and I will most definitely fail. The dream ends with me poised to cram and hope that I will somehow miraculously pull through.
I had the dream again Monday night.  Only this time there was a twist to the ending.  When I came to the realization of the predicament I put myself in, I started exploring options.  I worked on the possible alternative outcomes.  I weighed the pros and cons.   I came up with the solution of withdrawing from the course and having to explain the lurking notice on my transcript in the future.   I then planned for a tough next semester with the additional course to make sure I was still on the trajectory to an on-time graduation.

That addition made for a new perspective.  My stress dream became a problem-solving dream.  And it left me thinking where else I could  my life I could  achieve similar transformations.  And wouldn’t it be nice if I could always plan my way out of bad dreams…