The power of the mind: with imagination, success comes twice
*Original article on andersonmatias.co
The human brain is an impressive machine, either by the biological complexity or by what is accomplished through its capabilities. However, the mind is actually the main factor that differenciates us from any other living being on the biosphere (for the good and for the bad).
The human intellect has obviously reached a lot in so many different areas, but what does “imagination” actually stand for? Many relate it almost entirely to creativity, but does it describe it completely? Let’s see what the Oxford Dictionary has to say: imagination, is “the faculty or action of forming new ideas, or images or concepts of external objects, not present to the senses; the ability of the mind to be creative or resourceful; the part of the mind that imagines things”. It also states that its Etymology relates to the “old French, coming from Latin imaginatio(n- ), from the verb imaginari ‘picture to oneself’, from imago, imagin- ‘image’”.
“Everything you can imagine is real.” — Pablo Picasso
“But hey, Anderson, what is this all about?” — Well, if you consider that our perception of reality is extremely relative and that what we see, remember, dream or how we picture something activates the very same areas in our brain, then the power of imagination has a great deal of influence on the way we perceive the world, our capacity to accomplish things and how we recover from setbacks. More than creating something new, imagining things is a great part of planning, in a way that likely most people not realize.
By planning, I mean “knowing what you want and thinking about how to get there”. That is why with imagination, success comes twice, when you imagine it and when you execute it. Your mind won’t bother to differentiate if you are just thinking about something or you are actually living it, so make it count! Whenever you do the exercise of imagining how good you want an aspect on your life to be, then in some extension you are actually already there, at least the feeling of it might give you the motivation you need to start putting your plans into practice.
“Imagination is more important than knowledge…” — Albert Einstein
It doesn’t matter the goal, it really doesn’t matter how difficult, it doesn’t matter how you will get there, it always starts by imagining it, picturing it. It does work on both positive and negative ways, so be positive and go…for…it! If you don’t know what you want, then anything may be good and bad at the same time, you’ve taken your hands off the steering wheel and you are not in control of which road to take. Is it really the outcome you imagine to your life? The good news is that you can choose. Be creative, visualize and generate perspective, play different scenarios on your head and identify the ones you feel comfortable with. It will allow you to know what to do in a whole variety of situations, it will allow you to have an action plan in advance, it may even make you feel safer and confident about your present and future, you will know what to do, you’ve “been” there before. Even if you get caught by surprise on some tricky situation, the mindset will help you walk through it. Where does your imagination can take you? What pictures of your life do you want to see a few years from now? What drafts of the future will you pick?
Think about it, and tell the world the answer. . .
— — — — —
Thanks for reading! Liked this article? Check out some more:
How learning guitar has shaped the way I perceive self-development
