"Imagination is more important than knowledge." Albert Einstein
Master Secret: Operating Out of Our Imagination
Strategy: Let yourself fantasise often about the future you want, without restriction.
Getting Comfortable With Discomfort
The business of dream-chasing operates within the scope of life and not the other way round; we don't live in a dream world. Our ability to become comfortable with being uncomfortable during the dream-chasing process is essential to keeping our dream fulled.
For the best part, most of us are quite content remaining within our well-padded comfort zones. We know the surroundings well enough, it’s usually safe, warm, and it can offer us a high sense of security. People telling us that we need to get out of our comfort zones has almost become a well-worn cliché. It hasn’t really helped us in making larger, specific and conscious choice as a society, such as exploring the creative aspects of our individual worlds. So, we're still not living our personal truth. Most of us either see dream-chasing as a waste of time, while others believe that the road to dreams is a matter of choices, small advantages, and some failure until you arrive at your desired destination.
As it stands, all our actions come from our beliefs, and what shapes belief is inherited thinking and education, combined with the world around us. This includes imagery, people, family, friends, audio, videos, and the Internet, and let's not forget news programs. It then stands to reason that if we challenge inherited thinking when it does not serve us, and instead, change what we’re exposed to, our beliefs can change and our actions will also change as a result. If actions can change, our future can change. However, in the business of dream realisation, we will inevitably become disheartened along the way when we don't receive immediate results. Ever-increasingly, modern countries have evolved into societies that seek immediate gratification. We have become impatient with the process. How do you feel this impatience impacts imagination and our ability to manifest our deepest visions?
When impatience occurs, frustration sets in and we give-up. If consistent effort is placed into imaginative processes, it would take us a fraction of the time to reach our destination. Being comfortable with being uncomfortable is the breakdown before the breakthrough. Most of us though, stop at the breakdown and get a job.
The way we see the world can either be as a threat to our survival or as an adventure for growth. It is fundamentally the same life, but with two very different views and those two views produce two very different life outcomes. The question is, what do you choose to believe in? Is the world abundant or scarce?
For example, the idea of skydiving is terrifying for most people. Jumping out of a plane with nothing but a piece of stitched together material strapped to your body, which deploys to save your life at a precise moment, can be viewed as a life-threatening move, or conversely, as an enjoyable experience. Some people feel a sense of euphoria when jumping out of a plane, having total trust in the parachute, while others experience an enormous jump in their cortisone levels, thinking: "This could be the end!" Could it be we’re uncomfortable with the thought of putting our life in another’s hands? Many who take the leap for the first time have become comfortable with discomfort.
Getting comfortable with being uncomfortable is the difference between people who are living the life you may want to live, and those reading about that life and asking how to go about getting it. People who reach the peak of their mountain have made themselves comfortable with being uncomfortable until their dream is realised. These people are no different from you and I; they put their pants on one leg at a time, they watch what they eat, they sleep well at night and they are early to rise. In most cases, the only difference is how much they want it, which is coupled with a strong recognition and almost total disregard for the pitfalls or challenges involved in getting there. Is this you? Do you have what it takes to live the life you’ve always wanted? Yes, you do. How do I know this without knowing you? Because if you can envision it, you have the ability to achieve it.
How do we get from where we are now to where we want to be and not lose our sanity in the process? How do we harness the mental strength needed to overcome the doubters, negativity and naysayers, whilst constantly looking for the sunshine hidden just above the seemingly dominant clouds? It's a Jekyll and Hyde feeling for most dream-chasers. As Steve Jobs said, we're the crazy-ones. We're the ultimate non-conformists.
A non-conforming mind-set is the blend between reality and the crazy possible, the blend between our reality right now and what we want for ourselves and the world. Where would we be without Walt Disney’s imaginative mind? Where would we be if he decided to be an accountant, plumber or real estate agent? We’d probably have the most imaginative balance sheets, longest drains to nowhere and Disney castles on ever corner. The world needs different. And Walt believed to make what his heart truly yearned for—to share happiness, bliss and creativity with children and adults alike.
From time to time, I get asked what I believe to be someone’s personal truth—the thing that would make them happy if they decided to pursue it. As much as I can speculate based on my limited knowledge of them, I cannot answer it. More to the point, it is not my business to know until the individual has envisioned that journey for him or herself and then decided on their own trajectory.
The best advice I can give you here is: Live in your imaginative mind as you begin the path of dream-chasing. The two worlds you must walk between are imagination and responsibility. Embrace the magic of your imagination and the possibilities which are born from them.