Productive Imagination

As a child, my father often complained that I was a daydreamer. In his estimation, I walked around with my head in the clouds. I do not dispute his assessment. I was able to create a better life in my head than the life I was living. Unfortunately, it was not productive imagination.

Once we have reached adulthood, we put aside the imagination skills we learned as children. We join the work force of life and we stop imagining.  Daydreaming is considered a complete waste of time and effort and daydreaming is associated with being non-productivity.

Today I am in no way suggesting that you begin wiling away your hours in useless daydreaming. I am suggesting that you begin a regiment of productive imagination. Your subconscious mind does not know the difference between reality and something vividly imagined. You may be familiar with the saying ‘seeing is believing’ in his book Psycho-Cybernetics, Maxwell Maltz suggests that to your subconscious mind ’believing is seeing’. Just as golfer may imagine sinking the perfect putt before he does it; you must imagine your perfect life to create it.

Here are my recommendations for how to engage in productive imagination. First, set aside the same time every day for productive imagination. Second, do not allow interruptions in your period of productive imagination. Third, accept and believe all positive images as valid and helpful.