In Steve Chandler’s book, “100 Ways to Motivate Yourself” he writes that many adults use their imaginations\u00a0for only 2 things – worry and to imagine worst case scenarios.\u00a0Ugh. Proactively using the imagination would\u00a0seem advantageous\u00a0since what we create with it becomes our reality.<\/p>\n
The imagination fascinates me. As a kid I spent most of my time there, later as an actor it\u00a0allowed\u00a0me to become<\/em> the character, it was the\u00a0heart of\u00a0all \u00a0Imagineers\u00a0work and through it I saw the Red Shoe Zone.<\/p>\n As Imagineers, we even came up with our own derivative of it — Imaginating [verb]: harnessing the power of imagination to create new.<\/p>\n Claire and I were often asked to work in the classroom. We noticed that our signature\u00a0Imaginating<\/em> games, played to the delight of students, were equally popular with\u00a0teachers in professional development workshops. Laughter, excitement, out of the box creative and critical thinking prevailed in both situations.<\/p>\n I later used the same principles to warm-up corporate teams. It was universal, everyone regardless of age or position,\u00a0loved to\u00a0Imaginate. <\/em>The unleashing\u00a0of unrestricted thinking\u00a0felt good!<\/p>\n In reality we are doing much more than playing and having fun, we are tapping into our higher order thinking when reaching for the Imaginated<\/em> response. It is the essence\u00a0of creativity, combining old ideas to create new ones and produce the all important….unexpected.<\/p>\n It’s commonly thought that imagination and creativity is the sole dominion of those in the Arts (artists, actors, writers) of course they have it, and may use it more often,\u00a0but it’s in all of us. Especially\u00a0those who have raised children, that’s the ultimate\u00a0test of one’s imaginative and creative ability.<\/p>\n Imaginating<\/em> and the resultant creative thinking allows us to think beyond the parameters of what we know and \u00a0see things from a different perspective.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s also a valuable tool when we seek to rediscover ourselves and launch Part II of our lives!<\/p>\n \u201cImagination is everything. It\u2019s the preview of life\u2019s coming attractions.”<\/em><\/p>\n Albert Einstein<\/p>\n Want to imaginate<\/em> and see how creative you are?<\/p>\n This is something you can do alone but it\u2019s\u00a0definitely more fun to do it with a friend or in a group. Building on the ideas of others always brings a dynamic that\u00a0produces really exceptional ‘unexpected’ responses.\u00a0I asked my friend Karen (that\u2019s her in the picture) if she would come over and \u00a0play a creativity game with me. Luckily she\u2019s a gamer and said \u2013 \u201cSure!\u201d<\/p>\n Karen was playing it for the first time. However, she has successfully raised 2 great kids so her creative muscle is pretty well developed.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s what you do. Put a black spot in the middle of a piece of white paper.<\/p>\n You have 2 minutes to generate as many answers as you can to the question, \u201cWhat could<\/i> this be?\u201d<\/p>\n Karen and I came up with 37. Beat that! Some of our best were— a belly button full of lint, a blackhead on an albino, tunnel in a snowstorm, squished spider in the bathtub, ink stain on white jeans,\u00a0 escaped black balloon, a nose of a polar bear and a mole that needs to be looked at.<\/p>\n We laughed a lot…..which is good too… it opens our hearts and allows our hearts and minds to work together.<\/p>\nreACTION [to change in the response to stimulus]: Day 16\u2013 Belly button lint <\/b><\/h2>\n