Cultivate Your Imagination
Issue #43
What the world needs now is more imagination and creativity. Every day, we face problems and challenges in our personal and professional lives. Too often, we continue to respond to these problems in the same way that we have always responded. We keep doing what we have always done and keep getting the same result. Instead, we should search for new ways to solve problems.
What challenges do you face as a creative leader? What obstacles stand in your way of achieving the success you dream about? Are you so focused on the problems that you fail to see the opportunities around the corner? Shift your focus to the possibilities. Choose a new path into the future. Imagine a better world.
What are you doing to expand your imagination — to open the doors of creative thinking? What are you doing to escape the black hole of negative thinking? Here are five ways to increase your imaginative thinking.
Develop an attitude of curiosity. Be curious about everything. Look for connections that others do not see.
Question and challenge accepted beliefs, assumptions, and practices. Just because you have always done it a certain way does not mean you should continue to do it that way.
Explore the world. Travel to places you have never been. Read books in fields of learning that you usually don't read. Engage people outside your field of expertise in conversations and learn from them.
Conduct a daily doodling practice. Doodle for 5 - 10 minutes. Doodling helps to relax your mind and start your creative juices flowing. Drawing can free your mind of entrenched ways of seeing. Create new ways of seeing by doodling. Focus your attention on the doodling. Don't worry about being artistic.
Conduct a daily writing practice. Write every day for 10 minutes. Don't worry about grammar, spelling, or punctuation. Start with the phrase, "In the future, I…". Keep writing for the full 10 minutes. When you run out of things to write, start again with the phrase, "In the future, I…”.
Remember that your imagination and creativity will help you solve most of your problems and help you build a better world. Begin now to cultivate your imagination.
Plant seeds of hope in the hearts of others.
