“Imagination is the beginning of creation.

You imagine what you desire,

you will what you imagine and

at last you create what you will.”
–George Bernard Shaw

Imagination has been on my mind of late. I keep returning to this wonderful tool of the mind and wonder how I might use it to venture more outside my comfort zone. (Other mind tools include: logic, reason, will, memory, perception, and intuition. Yes, all of these work together.)

I’ve come to realize that, like any other tool, my imagination can be used against me. Did you ever notice that when fears surround or creep up on you that your imagination might be used to make the fears take root? Maybe I’m experiencing confusion or indecision because I’m doing something unfamiliar. The nasty fear voice might be saying to me: Don’t go there. Don’t do this. It’s too uncomfortable. Come back inside where it’s nice and comfortable. I relive related memories and my imagination might project what could happen if I don’t “listen” to this voice that I’m dealing with.

“Prison bars imagined are no less solid steel.”

–R. Crowell.

If I would only step back, take a look at what’s going on here, I might realize that the combination of some fear and my imagination are keeping me “safe” inside my comfort zone.

I have an option, already paid for, where I can market my writing ebooks. This has been available to me for weeks. So what’s keeping me from moving forward with this endeavor? Yes, you got it – a nasty fear-induced voice and my imagination that tends to run away on its own, back by fears. The fear was saying: This will just turn into another failure. You’ve never done this before. And my imagination was supporting this by showing me a future of failure.

“Imagination is more important than knowledge.”

–A. Einstein

When I realized how these two things (fear and imagination) were working together, I stood back and re-evaluated. I shifted my being. How can I fail or succeed if I do nothing? (Which the nasty voice and imagination worked together to want me to do.) So doing nothing, I told that nasty fear and my imagination, isn’t the answer.

So what if I’ve never done this before! I’ve done plenty of things in the past that I had never done and they turned out great – like learning to ride a bike and years later to drive a car. What would have happened if I had said “no” to those and other learning experiences? I made a list of ten things I had done in the past (new things) and why those changed my life for the better.

My choice is to take control and use my imagination to my advantage and benefit. What happens if I imagine success? What would that look and feel like? Next I made a list of ten things that I might do or learn that will help me with my present goals and how that will help bring into my life the things I’m seeking. I imagined myself on the other side of the “learning” or “doing” and what it might be like in a positive way.

That’s the place I want and need to me. So I’m moving ahead with my ebook project. I’m setting up the website that might work to launch this endeavor.

The choice is mine (and yours!). I can be trapped or choose to be free. I have a right to claim this. My imagination can work FOR and WITH me.

“Between stimulus and response, there is a space.

In that space lies our freedom

and our power to chose our response.

In our response (In those choices) lies our growth and our happiness.”

–Unknown

(often attributed to Viktor E. Frankl)

Challenge for today: Can you spot times when your imagination worked against you? How might you or did you turn that around? (Think: SHIFT!)

Best Wishes,

June