If you don’t imagine, nothing ever happens at all. WHAT IF you imagine?

How much of what is happening to you has been designed by you? Is life just happening to you?

If you don’t imagine, nothing ever happens at all.
— John Green

Imagination is not just about dreaming. Imagination, you see, is a misnomer. It should have been spelled imaginaction, for it can be one of two things imag-inaction or imagin-action. And rarely two non-existent words with the same spelling have had such different meanings.

Imag-Inaction, or image inaction, is the place where most of your friends and coworkers are stuck. In imag-inaction, they have cute little pictures of what they would really like to see happen. They really like these dreams, these pictures. So they keep these tokens locked down into pretty little boxes, and hide them deep in drawers of their minds. Regularly, they come and open the drawer, then pop the box open, and look at the pictures… “Hmm… Wouldn’t it be great?” they think… then something happens, the boss comes in, or a client calls. They snap the box closed, and lock the drawer in a hurry, and get back to what they should-really-be-doing-or-someone-told-them-so. These images are cute, really cute. They better be, though, because it is as close your friends and coworkers will get from their dreams.

Living in Imagin-Action feels really different. Imagin-Action is the land of imagine+action. You can live there if you want. If you do, you will get the right to dream, to imagine whatever you want. This right comes with a duty, though: if you dream it, and you like it, then you have to try it. Now, this is why Imagin-Action passport is granted with a probation period. Not everyone dares to try. Many people end up making only a brief visit, after realizing that “with great powers, come great responsibilities”. With the power of designing your life, comes the responsibility to make it happen, have it done. This, by the way, does not always take much effort, but it nearly always takes resolve and discipline.

So, given a choice, will you live in Imag-Inaction or Imagin-Action? Will you just daydream? Or dream and dare?

I would engage you to make the move from Imag-Inaction to Imagin-Action. It is windier here. It is a bit scarier too, at first. But it feels good. This is, really, the land of the free, where you are free from fear of failure, and tensions of success.