"I" is for Imagination

Today's A-Z Challenge letter is "I".

What is this ethereal entity we call imagination?

Dictionary.com ~the product of imagining;  a conception or mental creation, often a baseless or fanciful one.

Merriam-Webster Dictionary ~ the act or power of forming a mental image of something not present to the senses or never before wholly perceived in reality.

SuccessConsciousness.com ~ the ability to form a mental image of something that is not perceived through the senses.

Wikipedia ~ the work of the mind that helps create, provides meaning to experience and understanding to knowledge; is a fundamental facility through which people make sense of the world. The basic training for imagination is listening to storytelling, in which the exactness of the chosen words is the fundamental factor to "evoke worlds."  Woohoo! I like this def the best!

I believe, as my tagline will attest, that Imagination is the elixir of life, not the elusive Philosopher's Stone that has enraptured alchemists since the 10th century--including Sir Isaac Newton. Without imagination, there is no progress, no growth. Only stagnation and decline. Imagination pushes us forward, keeps us in motion. Ever learning. Ever reaching to understand more.


Imaginative play is a critical part of child development. It is an activity we should carry over into adulthood to continually revitalize ourselves. Unfortunately, many of us don't bring it with us because we're clinging to bad memories and disappointments.

Jerome L Singer, PhD, Professor Emeritus Yale University, has studied the phenomenon of imaginative play in adults and surmises that daydreaming and fantasy could improve everyday problem-solving abilities. He further postulates that imbibing in "creative novels and dramas built around characters’ private thoughts" could have a similar effect.

My interpretation of Dr. Singer's research...indulging in imagination is good.


Albert Einstein rode the imagination train. He said, "logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere."  He also believed imagination was more important that knowledge. "For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand."


Motivational speaker, Stephen Covey, encourages us to "live out of {our} imagination, not {our} history." And, Henry Miller asserted that "imagination is the voice of daring. If there is anything godlike about God it is that. He dared to imagine everything."

When you engage your imagination, you become the creator of a universe that is uniquely and unequivocally your own. The only limitations to that providence are the ones you devise.