A most lovely colleague shared that he’d dreamt overnight that a personal wardrobe malfunction would befall him when he stood up in a lecture theatre later that day in front of dozens of people.  Based no doubt on his perceived stress of the event – why, I’m not sure, for he is an amazing presenter – he nevertheless managed to laugh about it, probably because the relationship he has between food, weight, exercise and the ability to fit into his favourite trousers that are proving a little problematic for him at the moment, seems a tad unbalanced.

So I laughed along with him, and of course then sympathised, trying to reassure him that this prediction wouldn’t come true (how did I know?  But I hoped so!).  And then I asked what seemed like a sensible question:

Me:  So have you got those trousers on today?

Him:  Oh yes, of course!

Oh, how we laughed.  For a good several seconds.

And then we talked about how sometimes we never learn from our mistakes, how we fail to make a change when we know it’s the right thing to do, and what might be causing it.  A bit of a deep and meaningful conversation that emanated purely from an anecdote about a dream, and some trousers … but it made us both realise that just occasionally there are very real, tangible opportunities we can take that might just enable us to do what we’ve always done in a completely different way.