Get in Touch with Your Imagination

“Use your imagination.” This is phrase that every child has probably heard hundreds of times, but how often is it said to you? How often do you say it to yourself? If you are like most adults, you are not saying it enough. Once we reach a certain age, most of us don’t see a need or use for our imaginations. However, this is a highly underrated ability.

Your imagination adds so much to your life. It can add sparkle to dull days. It can change your entire outlook on your life. Why? If you can picture different, better things for yourself and you can believe in them, then you can achieve them. Your imagination is similar to your ability to envision things.

So how do you strengthen your ability to imagine? You need to practice. You’ve probably heard the phrase by Confucius before that states: “I hear, I forget. I see, I remember. I do, I understand.” That’s what you need to do. Me telling you to use your imagination more isn’t going to do anything; you have to actively do it. How? Here are some ideas:

1. Do

There are many different activities you can include in your life that will strengthen your imagination. Here are a few suggestions that are easy to implement:

Hobbies

If you are like most people, your life is hectic. Hobbies may have fallen by the wayside. However, hobbies often involve a lot of imagination and creativity. Scrapbooking, sewing, graphic design, gardening, carpentry and many move activities require you to think ahead as to what you want to create and what the end product will look like. In other words, they require you to imagine.

Travel

Travelling to different places and seeing different things opens your mind up to a world of possibilities and opportunities that you may have never known existed before. Seeing and doing new things are important tools to strengthening your imagination. You don’t need to go far from home, just find out about museums, art galleries, hiking trails and anything else that might get you out of your rut in your area and have you experiencing something different in your area.

Reading

Reading takes you places. It makes you think. It affects your emotions. It makes you use your imagination. When you can look at words on a page and envision a whole world in your head, you are doing a pretty good job of strengthening your imagination. You don’t need to read novels either, it could be non-fiction, magazines, newspapers, anything really.

Games

When was the last time you played a board game? Been a while? Why not try one tonight. I suggest ones like Pictionary, charades or Cranium that require you to think about a situation, topic or event and then imagine how you will portray it to others. Plus, it’s great entertainment.

Writing

Writing requires you to create something. Whether you are writing a fictional story or just re-counting what happened during your day, you need to see in your head what you want to write about. You can write stories, keep a journal about your day-to-day life or even write down the dreams you had the night before, anything that gets your mind working.

Daydreaming

Speaking of dreams, why not try some waking ones? Daydreaming is a great way to use your imagination. Sit for a few minutes each day and just imagine. It could be what your day is going to go like, what you’re going to have for dinner, your plans for the weekend, where you want to go on vacation, what you want to do when you retire, anything at all. Just try to make them as vivid as possible, include where they will happen, who will be involved, what you will do, what will be said, etc.

2. Let Go of Your Fears

Often what holds people back from using their imagination to the fullest is fear. They are afraid to imagine something great for themselves because then if they try to do it they may face failure or rejection and this is just too much for them. They don’t want to imagine something for themselves if they may not achieve it. Some people even harness their imaginations because they are afraid of success. They feel that if they imagine something and are able to achieve it they will be also have expectations placed on them by others or even themselves that they are afraid they might not be able to meet.

In order to fully use your imagination to see and achieve things in your life, you need to learn to let go of your fears. Even if you fail, it is alright. Failure is not a negative as long as you learn to fail forward. See mistakes as stepping stones to achieving your dreams. Learn from them and use them to move forward. Don’t let fear stunt your growth.

3. Try Vision Boards

This is one activity that I felt needed to be discussed on its own. Vision boards are a very powerful tool. Essentially what you do is go through magazines or online and find images of anything that intrigues you and you would like to see in your life. Cut and print them all out and then go through them again and select the ones that really speak to you. Using a piece of Bristol board or cardboard, glue all the pictures on it in any manner you’d like. You can also add words or drawings and paintings of your own. Some people even include a picture of themselves in the middle of it all. When you are done, you have a concrete image of what you would like to see happen in your life. Then you can use your imagination to see how you will achieve it.

Walt Disney once said, “Dream, believe, dare, do.” The ability to use your imagination is the first step to getting there.