Why do you run out of gas in a dream?   

Automobiles in our dreams are symbols of getting from one place to another in our lives.   For example, suppose you are the type of person who plans out what you want to accomplish for a day or a week or a month.    You sit down and probably write all of the things you want to do and then slot them into a time frame.    When you get into your car in a dream,  it is the part of you that is trying to implement the plan.    You begin in the present tense, get into your mental car, and try to arrive at the destinations that you have set forth in your plan.

Running out gas is caused when the plan you have made is going after incorrect goals.  Your internal car drains your energy so that you will stop and reconsider what you are doing.      If you stubbornly hold onto the wrong goals,  you will probably constantly start with a lot of enthusiasm, then break down and tire somewhere in the middle.

For instance,  it is logical to think that if you want to see big changes in an organization, that the way to do it is to change the top, but, in most cases the people at the top are thinking that it is everyone else beneath them that needs to change for the organization to be successful.    Instead of ever focusing on themselves or supporting the ideas that others create,  they believe that they are the ones generating the ideas and trying to get others to change to implement them.       Your plan, that ends up draining you, may be to try to get someone else to do something that they are just not interested in.    The draining comes in when your mind holds to the plan believing that if you just say the right things or change your tactics, the others will change.   They don’t.

When you get drained, it means that you are stubbornly holding onto a plan that is not going to work.    You can fill up your tank and have it permanently run, when you remember your successes and then continue down the same path that worked in the past.    At the same time you can just let go of the mistaken goals.

I have a really difficult time letting go of trying to influence people at the top because I believe that my logical thinking is so good that they won’t be able to resist.    THEY RESIST.    When they resist and I hold on, my system drains me.  I run out of gas.    When I remember where I have been successful and then continue down the same road,  my tanks refills itself all the time.

There is a counter-intuitive part to filling up your tank that I recently found out that can be very helpful.    If you run out energy when you are on the right path going for positive goals, then your system is just calling for more endurance that you get from gradually increasing efforts and rest.     In that case you occasionally need rest in order to restore yourself.    If you run out of gas because of going down the wrong path, your spirit and your body stop you, making you feel like nothing is in your tank.

The two states are very different, but in both cases you feel drained.   When you are running on empty because of being stubborn,  you can just let go of the wrong goal and begin acting in another direction that has worked for you before.   As soon as you move forward your tank will begin filling up.   The more you stay in that direction the more energy you will have in your tank.

Here are a couple of ways we tend to get stuck and run out of gas.

1.  We don’t like the way our spouse is acting, so we create a plan to get them to change.

2. We don’t like the way the leaders are running the organization so we try to communicate with them to get some positive changes.  When they are not open, we think up of new way to communicate.  We just keep repeating this pattern.

When we do change work in the wrong direction,  it is as if we are trying to be the one on top, the one in control of the other.    Successful plans always begin by remembering positive strategies that actually work.   They are never about moving vertically in a relationship, a group, or an organization.

Exercise:

1.  Remember a period in your life when you were most successful.   Think about what you did and how you thought that created positive results.  Write it down and repeat it to yourself everyday for a week.

e.g.  When I learned a new language,  I went to classes,  studied a great deal, and took a lot of risks in making mistakes speaking to others.

2.  Let go of everything else.

3.  Find a way to generalize you success into other areas.