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Invigorating Imagination & Vivid Vision

by Rick Baker
On Jan 31, 2012

The other day I read1:

"The source and center of all man's creative power - the power that above all others lifts him above the level of brute creation, and gives him dominion, is his power of making images, or the power of imagination."

"Imagination pictures the thing you desire. VISION idealizes it. It reaches beyond the thing that is, into the conception of what can be. Imagination gives you the picture. Vision gives you the impulse to make the picture your own."

Do these quotes resonate with you?

Do those quotes help you understand what people mean when they say things like:

  • What's your Corporate VISION?
  • Can I see your VISION Statement?
Do you agree:
  • Leaders must have a Vivid VISION?
  • Leaders must capture and communicate their Vivid VISION?
  • Leaders must lead-by-example along the path to their Vivid VISION? Imagination?
 
What about IMAGINATION?
 
How important is it for Leaders to possess the power of IMAGINATION?
 
Do you agree, IMAGINATION is Invigorating...both to the owner of it and to those it affects?
 
How well do you understand the Leadership power sourced in Invigorating IMAGINATION?
 
***
 
 
I have been interested in IMAGINATION and VISION for many years. And, my interest increased as I took on supervisory, then managerial, then leadership roles. Now, looking back, I better understand the errors I have made in business and with People. One of those mistakes was not explaining things well enough: not explaining what I was thinking, assuming people heard and processed my words the same way I said and intended them, etc. That was a major communication problem. Often, the words we think we say are not actually the words we say. And, often, the words we say mean different things to other People....even when they are doing everything they know to try to listen, to understand, and to follow.
 
To help fix my communication problem I now define words. So, when I read words like those of Robert Collier, quoted above, I use those words to firm up and clarify the words we often use but rarely troubleshoot for shared meaning. As examples:
 
Definitions...
 
IMAGINATION: the source of creative power: creating images in the mind, picturing things in your mind's eye
 
VISION: holding the mind's-eye picture of the thing you desire, seeing beyond the things that are and conceiving and idealizing what can be, and communicating the desire you idealize to other People


 
Footnote:
  1. 'The SECRET of the AGES - Volume 3', Robert Collier (1926)

Comments (12) -

Rick
2/5/2012 6:17:39 PM #

"Engendering a productively playful collaboration at work involves acknowledging the flow experience at the heart of each individual's task, as well as the meaning inherent in working together toward common goals. The experience of work must be intrinsically rewarding and, on some level, intrinsically meaningful."

Douglas Rushkof
'Get Back in The Box', (2005)

Rick
2/5/2012 6:26:27 PM #

Visualization elements...consider these as you solidify your Vivid Vision

1. Frequency...the more you visualize your Vivid Vision the better
2. Duration...the more time spent visualizing your Vivid Vision the better
3. Vividness...the clearer you picture your Vivid Vision the better
4. Intensity...the more you inject emotion into your Vivid Vision the better

adapted from...Brian Tracy
'GOALS!', (2010)

rick baker
3/26/2012 9:41:31 PM #

“All the greatest achievements in the world began in longing - in dreamings and hopings which for a time were nursed in despair, with no light in sight. This longing kept the courage up and made self-sacrifice easier until the thing dreamed of - the mental vision - was realized.”

Orison Swett Marden
'Pushing to the Front', (1911)

rick baker
3/28/2012 8:24:11 PM #

"As machines take over routine tasks and the accelerative thrust increases the amount of novelty in the environment, more and more of the energy of society (and its organizations) must turn toward the solution of non-routine problems. This requires a degree of imagination and creativity that bureaucracy, with its man-in-a-slot organization, its permanent structures, and its hierarchies, is not well equipped to provide."

Alvin Toffler
'Future Shock', (1970)

rick baker
4/15/2012 10:02:33 PM #

"Where unthinking gazers observe nothing, men of intelligent vision penetrate into every fibre of the phenomena presented to them, attentively noting differences, making comparisons, and detecting their underlying idea."

Samuel Smiles
'Self-Help: With Illustrations of Character and Conduct', (1859)

rick baker
5/4/2012 8:13:38 PM #

"The source and center of all man's creative power - the power that above all others lifts him above the level of brute creation, and gives him dominion, is his power of making images, or the power of imagination."

Robert Collier
'The SECRET of The Ages', (1926)

rick baker
5/26/2012 6:45:02 PM #

“Visualization in Seven Steps

1. Deserve: Know that you can have what you repeatedly see. Be willing to create the picture exactly as you want it.
2 Intend: Direct the picture; concentrate your mind. See the picture and hold it. Don't let your mind wander.
3. Ease: relax, don't tense or strain. You may want to do muscle relaxation exercises first.
4. Intensity: Pour your feelings into the image. Let yourself feel an intense longing, or desire, for what you see.
5. Detail: Step into your picture and see the detail. See the grain in the wood, the dew in the grass.
6. Include: If you want the object of your visualization, be sure to include yourself in the picture.
7. Enjoy: Feel good about what you see. Express gratitude for receiving it. Let it go. Know that it is done."

Laurence G. Boldt
'ZEN and the art of making a living', (2009)

rick baker
6/18/2012 7:20:19 PM #

"6 Visualizing Guidelines

1. Visualize once a day
2. Visualize no longer than 5 to 10 minutes at a time
3. Imagine every conceivable detail
4. Feel the emotion: feel what you expect to feel
5. Put yourself in the picture
6. Dwell on the end result or beyond [not the 'hows']"

paraphasing...
Mike Dooley,
'Manifesting Change', (2011)

rick baker
1/22/2013 8:33:18 PM #

“When you access the envision brainset, you think visually rather than verbally. You are able to see and manipulate objects in your mind’s eye. You see patterns emerge. In this brainset you tend to think metaphorically as you “see” the similarities between disparate concepts. This is the brainset of imagination.”

“The envision brainset is the activation state that facilitates imagination. The envision brainset also provides a link between the deliberate and the spontaneous pathways to creativity by allowing you to retain purposeful and deliberate control of the contents of conscious awareness while accessing information and ideas that are developed at more spontaneous and disinhibited levels of cognitive processing.”

Shelley Carson
‘Your Creative Brain’, (2010)

rick baker
8/13/2013 12:15:06 AM #

"Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life's coming attractions."

Albert Einstein

rick baker
11/24/2013 10:39:21 AM #

"For imagination sets the goal picture which our automatic mechanism works on. We act, or fail to act, not because of will, as is so commonly believed, but because of imagination."

Maxwell Maltz
American Cosmetic Surgeon and Author [PsychoCybernetics]

rick baker
8/5/2015 3:05:49 PM #

On Visualization

"The psychologists have come to the conclusion that there is but one sense, since of feeling, and that all other senses are but modifications of this one sense; this being true, we know why feeling is the very fountain-head of power, why the emotions so easily overcome the intellect, and why we must put feeling into our thought, if we wish results. Thought and feeling are the irresistible combination."

Charles Haanel, 'The Master Key', (1917)

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