The Power of Imagination
Sanjay Goel
Soft Skills, Behavioural and Leadership trainer, Outbound training, DiSC trainer, Coach, Author, NLP and Hypnosis Practitioner, Customised Content Design and Delivery, Learning Consultancy
When we read Dr. Stephen Covey’s book, ‘The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People’, habit two, ‘Begin with the end in mind’ is related to the power of imagination.
He says ‘every physical creation starts with mental creation first’. Whether you are building a bridge, or a tower, you have created an image in your mind, and then on the paper, and then it starts becoming a reality.
Newton dozed off under the famous apple tree and was shaken by the impact of the falling apple. He asked himself ‘why did the apple fall on the ground?’ To ask this question, you need power of imagination. You cannot ask if you cannot imagine apple disappearing into the sky.
A boy dreams of becoming a cricketer or a doctor, then becomes one. Without a dream, what would he pursue? The life we want to lead, we want to create for ourselves has to be imagined first, created in our mind otherwise we won’t be working for it.
Dr. Stephen R. Covey also shares four human endowments. He talks about four gifts which only humans have.
Self-awareness – Our ability to examine our own thoughts, feelings and emotions. You see dogs barking on the street. They bark, sometimes even bite and then run away. Dogs can get angry but that self-awareness is missing. It cannot examine its own feelings and emotions. They will come and go.
Imagination – Our ability to visualize beyond today. There was an interesting experiment conducted on a chimp. It was kept in a cage, there were bananas hanging out of its reach and just below was a stick. When chimp was hungry, it saw the stick and the banana, pulled the bananas down and ate them. After some days, the bananas were kept at the same place but the stick was kept away from the banana. Chimp could not see both banana and the stick in the same frame. This time chimp could not connect banana and the stick. Chimp could not see beyond one single frame. We humans can see and visualize beyond the present situation. Dr. Viktor Frankl writes about his experiences in the nazi camp in his famous book ‘The man’s search for meaning’. One of the reasons he came alive was his power of imagination. He imagined that one day he will be free from nazi camp and tell his students about his experiences.
Conscience – Our ability to differentiate between right and wrong. Dogs get angry, they bite and run away. They cannot differentiate between right and wrong.
Independent will – Our ability to choose our responses is the most difficult situation. Captives in the nazi camps were served very limited food (two loafs of bread with curry of water), their clothes were completely removed, kept in open and made to do all the labour work. Most of them died due to starvation, sickness, hardship and cold. Nazi soldiers had a target to kill certain number of captives every day. They would shoot some of the captives every day. Dr. Victor Frankl in those horrifying Nazi camps, noticed captives stealing food from the weaker. However, even in those impossible situations, there were captives sharing their food and taking care of others in whatever way they can. Humans have this freedom to choose their response irrespective of the situation.
Power of imagination is undervalued and misunderstood. In one of my sessions on Personal Effectiveness, when I was sharing about the power of imagination, one of the participants got up. He seemed to be agitated. He said If I think about anything will it happen? I said ‘yes’. He said further’ If I think, I will have lot of money, will I have it? I said ‘yes’. How is this possible? I asked him ‘how much money do you want?’ Participant was not prepared for this question but he replied after a pause ‘two crores. I asked him ‘what will you do with these two crores?’ he started thinking. He had no answer. He had never thought about it.
领英推荐
You give a sales team, stretched target and they would immediately complain ‘this is impossible, it cannot be done.’ Their minds are not ready to accept. If they are not accepting mentally that they can do it, do you think they can do it? But once they accept it, they would now start working towards it. Whether they achieve it or fall short, but they are thinking and trying to reach there. Remember the famous saying ‘Aim at the stars, you will at least reach the moon’. ?
A boy at the age of ten sees Kapil dev lift the world cup. He dreams of wearing a blue jersey. At the age of ten, reaching there is impossible. Competition is extremely high. There are only eleven who play for the country but there are lakhs who want to be there. But he takes one step at a time. Practice and play at national levels. Play under 14 and then under 19. Leave your mark in Ranji and Duleep trophies. You also have IPL.
It is not that just by imagining, things will happen or life will change or you will be there. But it will surely start with imagination. You want to lose weight but when you see yourself in the mirror, you don’t see yourself slim. You will surely not lose weight. To lose weight, you have to see yourself slim first.
You read any self-help or motivational book (examples Think and grow rich, Success through positive mental attitude, Power of Subconscious Mind) there will be some reference or connection with power of imagination.
Athletes who compete at the international levels like Olympics, how do they keep themselves motivated? Using power of imagination.
Everyday they run the race in their mind. They see themselves running, see their opponents being left behind, they see their heart racing, muscles pushing them hard and fast, ultimately reaching the finishing line first. They fall from exhaustion. Their teams come to congratulate him. He stands wearing the beautiful gold medal and the national anthem playing behind.
What is your dream? What kind of life you want to live? What kind of live you want to live? Think about it. See yourself living it in your mind (before you go to sleep). You can write it in your diary or in a book. Think about how to be there. Take small actions towards it. The power of creating big is in small actions. (To know more about small actions, please read newsletter no.11, dated 2.4.23 'Why it is easy to form bad habits but difficult to form good habits?'
Thank you.