The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination. Albert Einstein.
I like people with imagination. Well, I guess like is not the right word. I love people with imagination. Put me in a room full of people who can imagine what can be, and I am on cloud nine. In fact the only disappointing part for me is when I have to leave.
Almost nothing energizes me more then being around people with imagination. Of course Ive always been one of those people who is full of imagination. When I was little, I imagined I was in every war, and I always saved the day. I also imagined I was a big-time wrestler, king, president and a Navy Seal. I lived quite a life through my imagination. As I got older, I never once stopped day dreaming.
We like movies, television programs and novels that tell a good story, the kind that can hold our attention so long that we forget what time it is. The best stories are the ones in which the audience is disappointed when its over.
Everyone has the need to escape reality from time to time, and a good story line does that. Its like going through the rabbit hole in Alice in Wonderland and coming out the other end into a make-believe world. Of course we all cant live in the land of make-believe. Sooner or later we have to come back into the land of fact.
Imagination can often be transferred into our everyday lives. The most common example is problem solving. Take jobs for example. When we are faced with a problem, we cant just sit around for seven hours with our head in our hands, wondering what we are going to do. No, we have to figure out the problem the best way we know how. That is where imagination comes into play, the ability to play out a scenario in ones mind before going ahead and doing it.
Sometimes we dont have the luxury of making many attempts at something. However, we can use our imagination to see what issues we might run into. We can fix them before they become a problem. Also, by imagining the situation, it will save time on execution.
When I was looking for a job, I worked with the Bureau of Vocational Rehabilitation. It is a state-run program that helps disabled people find jobs. The case worker I was assigned to really worked hard and tried her best for me. She talked about how she worked with employers before that were willing to work around some of her clients disabilities such as allowing them to take more breaks than normal, a reduced number of hours and taking off some of the hard duties and replacing them with easier ones.
How BVR would go about things is by having other organizations job developers come in and help the person look for a job. When I met my first job developer, she seemed to be very professional, the kind of person that wanted to get things done. To her credit, she tried to do the best she knew how. However, there was always one thing missing. She didnt have any imagination.
The way she saw things was the way it had to be. We would meet at the library, McDonalds or wherever we could go to talk about me getting a job. I had a lot of ideas of different jobs I wanted to check out, but it seemed like she would always shoot me down, telling me I wasnt accepting reality. She saw things one way, and nothing I said would change her mind. She saw my disability and only looked at things from a limited perspective, not exploring all the possibilities. Eventually she found me a job, and for that I am grateful.
I believe we can develop our imagination. Its like any skill in life. It takes practice. Sit down and let your mind wonder. It sounds boring, but if youll allow the mind to go into the places where its otherwise forbidden to travel, youll be amazed at what you find.
I do my best thinking when I am just relaxing and not doing much. Every day we get slammed with so much information that most of us are walking around in a fog. We cant think strategically and unleash our imagination on what we are doing, so we come up with a mediocre solution to our problems, but if we had time to think about things more thoroughly, we would be better off in the long run.
I can go on and on about the subject of imagination. Unfortunately Im running out of room, so stay tuned for the next column on imagination. Until then I hope you give your imagination a good workout.
