Your imagination didn’t expire when your responsibilities showed up.
At some point, somebody lied to us.
They made us believe that imagination was for children.
You know, kids can dream about being astronauts, authors, singers, doctors, superheroes, veterinarians, and the President all before lunch. And nobody looks at them sideways.
In fact, we encourage it.
“Dream big!”
“You can be anything!”
“Use your imagination!”
Then somewhere around adulthood, the message changes.
Now it’s:
Be realistic.
Be responsible.
That probably won’t work.
You need a backup plan.
Wait a minute.
So at 8 years old I can imagine myself changing the world, but at 46 I’m supposed to get excited about paying bills on time and finding a good coupon?
Absolutely not.
I rebuke boring.
I Still Like to Imagine
I imagine businesses that don’t exist yet.
I imagine rooms I haven’t walked into yet.
I imagine conversations I haven’t had yet.
I imagine myself doing things that, if we’re being honest, I don’t completely know how to do yet.
And here’s the beautiful part:
I don’t need to know how yet.
That’s what imagination is for.
Imagination gives your mind permission to visit a place before your feet ever get there.
And I think adulthood needs more of that.
Not less.
Because somewhere between careers, marriages, children, aging parents, deadlines, mortgages, grocery lists, meetings, laundry and 837 unread emails, we can become so consumed with maintaining the life we have that we stop imagining the life we could create.
And THAT is dangerous.
Your Imagination Is More Than Playing Pretend
I think we underestimate imagination because we’ve associated it with fantasy.
But imagination isn’t just pretending.
It’s possibility.
Before you can create something new, you have to be able to picture something different.
And that matters in business.
It matters in leadership.
It matters in relationships.
It matters when you’re healing.
It certainly matters when you’re rebuilding.
Sometimes imagination is simply the ability to look at your current circumstances and say:
“This is where I am, but this is not necessarily where I have to stay.”
Whew.
Read that again.
Because sometimes life will hand you enough evidence to convince you that what you see is all there is.
That’s when imagination becomes powerful.
It whispers:
But what if there’s more?
I Don’t Want to Become Too Grown to Wonder
There is something beautiful about wonder.
Wonder makes you ask questions.
What if I wrote the book?
What if I actually launched the business?
What if I took the trip?
What if I started over?
What if I took that class?
What if I created the thing I keep wishing somebody else would create?
What if I walked into the room anyway?
What if this season isn’t the ending?
What if it’s the setup?
See, I’m a Manager of Project Managers by profession.
I understand planning.
I understand schedules.
I understand budgets.
I understand risk.
I understand that somebody needs a strategy, a spreadsheet and an action item. 😂
But I have also learned that not everything meaningful begins with a perfectly developed plan.
Sometimes it starts with an idea.
A little crazy one.
One that keeps bothering you.
One that shows up while you’re driving.
Or walking.
Or praying.
Or sitting somewhere in silence doing absolutely nothing.
That quiet space can actually create room for reflection, original thought, and new ideas.
Sometimes you have to give your mind enough room to wander before it can show you somewhere new to go.
Imagination Keeps You From Getting Stuck
One of the greatest benefits of keeping your imagination alive is that it keeps you mentally flexible.
When you stop imagining, every obstacle starts looking permanent.
But imaginative people ask different questions:
What else could work?
What haven’t we tried?
Is there another way?
What would happen if we completely started over?
That’s creativity.
That’s innovation.
That’s entrepreneurship.
That’s leadership.
And sometimes, chile, that’s survival.
Even in the workplace, creativity and innovation matter because new ideas can lead to new solutions and better ways of doing things. Innovation, for example, emphasizes exploration, creative solutions, alternative perspectives and experimentation as sources of innovation.
But honestly…..
Before innovation becomes a corporate buzzword, it starts as somebody saying:
“I wonder if…”
Don’t lose your I wonder if.
Imagination Gives Joy Somewhere to Play
And y’all already know how I feel about JOY.
Joy needs room.
Joy does not always come from accomplishing another goal.
Sometimes joy comes from being curious again.
Being silly.
Creating.
Singing too loudly.
Writing something nobody asked you to write.
Decorating a room.
Dancing in your kitchen.
Thinking of a business idea at 11:47 p.m. and getting ridiculously excited about it.
Dreaming about what your life could look like five years from now.
That’s why my philosophy around joy as a lifestyle matters so deeply to me. My own writing and business vision keeps coming back to the idea that joy isn’t simply a reward we’re supposed to earn. It’s something we practice and intentionally embrace. There is a connection between joy, courage, purpose, confidence and legacy.
And imagination is part of that practicing this connection.
Because hope asks:
What could still happen?
Imagination answers:
Friend… let me show you.
You Need Somewhere to Go Before You Get There
I believe some of the most important things we create happen twice.
First internally.
Then externally.
You see yourself doing it before you’re doing it.
You picture the business.
The healthier version of yourself.
The peaceful home.
The financial freedom.
The ministry.
The course.
The book.
The movement.
The healed version of you.
The woman who isn’t afraid anymore.
And please understand: imagining something doesn’t mean you get to skip the WORK.
Oh no, ma’am. Oh no, sir!
Faith without execution will have you sitting there with a beautiful vision board and the same problems next December.
At some point we’ve got to get up.
But imagination provides direction for the work.
It lets you see beyond what currently exists.
And Maybe That’s Why Kids Dream So Easily
Children don’t always start with limitations.
Adults do.
We immediately start calculating.
How much does it cost?
Who’s going to help?
Where will I find the time?
What if nobody supports it?
What if I fail?
What will people think?
Meanwhile, a seven-year-old has transformed a cardboard box into a spaceship and departed for Mars.
No funding.
No strategic plan.
No stakeholder meeting.
No PowerPoint.
Just VISION.
Maybe adulthood doesn’t require us to abandon that version of ourselves.
Maybe wisdom and wonder were always supposed to live together.
Maybe experience should help us build our dreams, not talk us out of them.
Protect the Part of You That Still Dreams
Protect her. Protect him.
The woman or man who still gets excited about possibilities.
The woman or man who sees something beautiful in their mind before anybody else understands it.
Protect the part of yourself that gets curious.
That asks questions.
That doodles.
Writes.
Sings.
Creates.
Daydreams.
Experiments.
Starts something ridiculous just because it makes you happy.
Because life will constantly give you reasons to become practical.
Responsibilities will remind you to be practical.
Bills will make you practical REAL quick. 😂
But don’t let being responsible make you unimaginative.
You need both.
Be responsible enough to handle your reality and imaginative enough to create a new one.
Dream Anyway
Maybe you’re reading this thinking:
“Kenisha, I haven’t dreamed in a long time.”
That’s okay.
Start small.
Sit somewhere quiet.
Put the phone down.
And ask yourself:
If fear, money, age and other people’s opinions weren’t part of the equation, what would I love to experience, build, learn, create or become?
Don’t immediately figure out how.
Just answer.
Let yourself wander.
Let yourself wonder.
Let yourself imagine again.
Because you are not too grown.
You’re not too old.
You’re not too established.
And you certainly don’t have too many responsibilities to dream.
Maybe the grown-up version of imagination is even more powerful than the childhood version.
Because now you’ve got experience.
You’ve got scars.
You’ve got resources.
You’ve got wisdom.
You’ve survived some things.
You’ve learned some things.
And hopefully, you’ve finally stopped needing everybody’s permission.
So yes…
Keep your imagination.
Keep your curiosity.
Keep your weird ideas.
Keep dreaming about things bigger than your present circumstances.
Keep believing there are still rooms you’ve never entered, people you’ve never met, places you’ve never seen and versions of yourself you haven’t been introduced to yet.
God gave you the ability to imagine a possibility before you could physically hold it.
Maybe you shouldn’t be so quick to dismiss that.
Dream it. Pray about it. Write it down. Work toward it.
And every now and then?
Go build the cardboard spaceship.
Because grown folks need somewhere to dream too. 💜
Joy is a lifestyle. Don’t waste it.
Joy Junkie!
If you love these articles, please like, subscribe and share! Somebody needs to discover joy.
Leave a Reply