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All of us imagine all the time.  After all, it is our imagination that allows us to play out all the possible scenarios laid out before us and decide on a course of action.

“Without leaps of imagination, or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning.”  ~ Gloria Steinman

Our imagination determines for the most part how we react to nearly every situation. Our imagination allows us to take our experiences, and all the things we learn and connect them together in new and meaningful ways.  And our imagination allows us to enjoy life more fully.

However, there is a problem…

Although imagination is something we do constantly very few of us have been taught how to effectively manage our imagination.

Imagination in school, was for the most part, limited.  Even in art classes you were probably were taught that elephants are not pink and that you had to draw houses “this way” if you wanted to do it the “right way.”

As children we were told stop daydreaming and get back on task.  But then, suddenly, when the clock hit the magical hour we were told to turn our imagination back on for our creative writing projects.

Throughout our school years we were taught plenty of facts, and then asked to recall those facts. And now we are asked to solve problems based on all the information we learned.

No wonder, as adults, many people rely primarily our synthetic imagination.

It allows us to take those pieces and put them together in a new way. It rearranges the existing thought patterns into new patterns.  It is through the power of synthetic imagination that new products are developed.

All of us have synthetic imagination, and it’s a good thing we do.  If we didn’t we be much like a computer that stores facts, and does nothing with them unless directed to.

The other type of imagine is creative imagination. Creative imagination refers to our ability to develop completely new and different ideas.  It’s the ability to take concepts and put them together to solve  problems and achieve  goals. This type of imagination often manifests itself in the form of hunches and inspiration. And it is creative imagination that is responsible for many of the great breakthroughs in medicine, science, technology, art, music, literature.

Both creative and synthetic imagination are important, and both types of imagination play a vital role in your life.

The most successful people feed their synthetic imagination  on a regular basis, and they deliberately train themselves to tap into their creative imagination.

• So what can you do to broaden your imagination?

• What can you do to increase the power of your imagination?

Stay tuned for tips, insight, and resources  on how to manage your imagination…