Imagination

An imagination is a terrible thing.  I write this in the face of the advice handed out regarding the importance of imagining in getting what we want.  As in, if we can imagine it, if we can dream it, it will come into being.  Very nice.

Very not nice, because while we have this awesomely powerful tool at our fingertips, we have no concept of how powerful it truly is.

I've puzzled over how we have missed seeing what we've got, this tiger we have by the tail, and I've come to the following conclusions:

• We like things to be instant.  Imagining takes time to get results, which means either we give up on the imagining necessary or when we get the result of our imagining, it is so far from the starting point that we do not recognize it.  I once imagined my perfect work environment to be one where I was in a different location every day.  It happened long after I had forgotten about that imagining.  I was assigned seven locations per week, and was so wrung out by the end of the day on Friday that I swore I would never spread myself so thin again.  
• We imagine the details of what we want without looking at the essence of what we are after.  Details alone are not effective at carrying energy.  So avoid imagining things like a blue car with X amount of power and so on.  Imagine a car that has the feeling of what that car will give you as well as type, color, capacity, for example.
• Self talk is a form of imagining.  It is not the universe dumping on us when we indulge in self talk like waiting for the other shoe to drop, expecting the day to not go well, thinking that someone is out to get us, that we will never be truly happy.  It is our enormously powerful ability to imagine in action.  
• Imagining has a partner: gratitude.  I will even say that gratitude is the engine of imagining.  When you sit down to do your imagining, and you'll want to give yourself a few minutes of imagining every day, start with a thank you for all that makes your life wonderful.  Even if the only thing you can come up with is the thought that you are still breathing, and because you are still breathing, there's time for things to get better.

Someone once told me that we earthlings are unique in our ability to be dreamers.  If this is so, I ask that we treasure our gift and use it wisely and well.