Our culture places enormous pressure on us from the time we are born and especially through the education system to learn knowledge and apply it. In fact, it seems like more than 80% of our attention and effort is about what already exists and how things work.

Very little is attention is placed on what we do not understand and how to go about questioning and exposing the assumptions that are blinkering our perception and creating blindspots. We end up in the habit of seeking ideas and answers from others and no longer identify with ourselves having an imagination.

Every breakthrough we ever had was a result of undoing an assumption or set of assumptions that were held together as logic, fact and reality. This is our imagination at work, bringing greater returns on reduced effort in resources and time.

A few hundred years ago, the world was flat and this was so logical to us that even the horizon was interpreted as the drop off zone. We had the ‘assumption’ that the eye could see as far as what existed in it’s line of sight. We assumed ships that went missing must have dropped off the end of the earth.

When Galileo and his colleagues suggested the earth was a sphere and we rotated around the sun, he was placed under house arrest by the Church. The intolerance on people who dissent from status quo thinking is an ongoing issue that we need to carefully manage. Its one thing to defend our values and another to shut down what is possible because its inconvenient to our emotional comfort zone. 

A decade or so ago, there was no knowledge of social media Facebook has become everyday knowledge! What does this mean? We can create knowledge with our imagination. Mark Zuckerberg played an instrumental role in creating the knowledge that we live as fact today. Many visionaries have done the same.

We need to respect the facts but back ourselves to create new ones! Imagine that; creating new facts. The power of the imagination has no limits. We have a rich history of innovation to prove it. Our innovation knows no bounds meaning we should be applying it to our personal goals and relationships rather than business ideas and inventions.

It really is a choice of choosing what shapes our identity? Are you a follower of reality or as an experiencer of a version of reality with the ability to create new versions that serve you and others?

I hope we are moving away from rote learning drone education and into more balanced education that equally focuses on learning how to learn.

Here is a 5 Step Process to help you reconnect with your imagination and intuition: – 

1. The next time you’re stuck, create a quiet space from distractions and list everything you know about the stubborn problem.
2.  Don’t let past experience dictate what is fact. Look for assumptions appearing as permanent facts. Assumptions on process, people’s capabilities, potential reactions and so on.

3. Focus on questions like, “What if it didn’t have to be this way, work this way?” “If I had the power, what would I change” “If it was built from scratch, what could be done differently?” “Whose eyes can I see this through that would reframe the problem and reveal a solution?” “If I had all the time in the world, what would I do with this?” “If I had no time and had to make this happen with less resources, what would I do to still make it happen?”

4. Meditate on it and go for a walk without thinking about the details anymore. Just hold the desire to understand without continuing to analysing. Do fun and engaging things to open the mind to possibilities without them needing to be related to the problem at all.

5. Be patient and let ideas come to you when you least expect them. You may be doing chores at the time or chilling.

Can you share a time where you do this and an idea popped when you least expected and was a game changer? I will share in time some of my favourites. 

EP7 – Empowered for Purpose in 7 Steps. Life Coach, Work Culture Consultant, Author and Motivational Speaker, George has 15 years personal development experience and is based in his Life Coach Perth Office in Subiaco. 08 9380 8350. www.lifecoachperth.com