Description: You are rushing to catch a bus, train, ship, airplane or other public transport, only to miss it, usually by a fraction of a second. The dream may involve various misadventures en route to the transport. You often feel frustrated rather than afraid in these dreams. You may be lacking vital papers, such as tickets, passport or visa. In a variation of this theme, you arrive too late for a performance in which you are supposed to participate and find that the play, musical production, sports competition or other event has already begun. (Dreams in which you are having trouble during a performance are classified with "I fail on a test or perform poorly.")

Frequency: Missing the boat dreams are moderately common. Some people have them often, others rarely. They usually arise when you feel anxious about making an important connection to one of your waking goals.

Usual meanings: You feel you've missed some opportunity in your waking life; you're too late; you can't make a connection, that you need to pull yourself together to make the connections you desire.

Questions to ask yourself:
If missing the boat or performance variation:

• Where are you going in your dream?
• Why are you going there?
• What is it that makes you feel you are "too late" or that you don't have what you need to take your part on the stage of life? If missing documents variation:
• What are you currently trying to accomplish in your waking life?
• What's missing for you to do your job properly or to get what you want?
• How can you better prepare yourself for what you want to do?