Chart Your Course

Image Courtesy of Todd Baker

Many people are so driven to succeed that they neglect to play.  I am, or rather, was one of those people.

You see, I’ve always been driven to succeed.  But, I was so driven to succeed that my life had slipped out of balance and I found myself failing to really enjoy life.

I kept thinking that once I achieve “this” I can relax and play more.  Once I achieve “that” I can take a few hours off to go hiking, or take a vacation.

But then the next big project came along and… well…you probably know the rest of the story.

Mark Twain said, “Work and play are words used to describe the same thing under differing conditions.”  Work can be play.  And play can be work.

Mark Twain also said,  “Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do. Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do.”

My problem was that throughout my life I had a pattern of turning the things I loved to do for fun into Read the rest of this entry »

Perhaps as a child you dreamed of being a ballerina or playing in the world-series. Perhaps you dreamed of traveling to exotic locations, of flying to the moon, or of being in movies. All of us had childhood dreams.  And many of us still have the same dreams now as adults.

Dreams are nothing more than what we imagine our life would be like. It’s the experiences we hope to live.

Sadly though, many have given up on their dreams.

“It’s to late,” they say. That may be true…

It may be to late to play in the world series, but you could still attend the world series, and adult form of  “play.”

It may be to late to be the star ballerina, but it’s not to late to dance, and to enjoy it. And it’s not to late to attend the ballet often.

And…

It’s not to late to build more dreams!
It’s not to late to make your dreams come true!

You’ve just got to give yourself permission to dream!

To help with that I’m adding a new resource, via a series of posts, here at Dream, Act, Plan, Believe. The word envision is to picture mentally some future event or events, so the new series is called Envision This.

The Envision This series will showcase some of the things I dream of doing, fascinating places to visit, exotic foods to try, things to experience, and some things you may just find interesting. It is designed to provide you with ideas – ideas of things that you can do to bring more joy in your life.

It’s a tool for you to use in creating new dreams and making dreams come true.

The first post is coming Monday.

By the way, you’ll recognize the posts in the Envision It series because they’ll have the envision this image (shown at the top of this post) in it.

Be sure to explore the site to find additional resources on how to make your dreams come true.

Image Courtsey of H. Koppdelaney's Photostream

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…

Chris Brogan’s recent article talked about how to Grow Bigger Ears in 10 Minutes.  No it’s not one of those article that teaches you how to grow bigger body parts!  (How many of us have gotten those in our spam box).   It’s an article that talks about the importance of listening to the chatter about you, and your brand.  In this article Chris teaches you one way you can use the power of Google Reader to capture that chatter about you or your company.

I couldn’t help thinking as I was reading the article that companies, for the most part, could also do a much better job of listening to their employees.  I’ve seen companies close their ears to suggestions that could save hundreds of thousands of dollars because “this is the way we do it here.”  And companies that treat their employees much like a robot, or a number, leaving their employees to think that their opinion doesn’t really matter.

• What if companies listened to the chatter of their employees?

• What if they tried to really listen to the opinions and experiences of their employees?

• What if they set out to see how they could help their employees enjoy their work experience even more?

That last question caused me to reflect about Kevin Carroll and about his experience at Nike.  I heard him speak not to long ago at a Mastery Retreat where he talked about the importance of play.

I tell you I gained some new respect for Nike that day as Kevin relayed his experiences with the company.  He basically wrote his own job description, where he was a catalyst for change.   While at Nike Kevin came up with the concept for their play commercials.

Have you seen them?  I think they’re great.

Here’s one that he showed us at the convention:

I’d love your feedback…

• What if there was a play revolution among companies?
• What can you do right now to add more play and excitement personally into your life?
• What can you do to play and more play into your life at home or at work?
• How does your work place incorporate play into their employees lives?

Take time to play.

~ Leisa

P.S. – Oh, Tag.  You’re It

Related Articles Elsewhere On This Site

• Kevin Carroll Interview
• The Red Ball Project by Kevin Carroll
• iLearningGlobal Video Review – Purposeful Play by Kevin Carroll
• Kevin Carroll – Books by Kevin Carroll, and  iLearningGlobal Faculty and Content Overview