Thoughts on Excellence Free E-Newsletter Series
Volume 22, Issue No. 10a
June 1, 2024
By Dan Coughlin
In MWD (Merriam-Webster Dictionary), imagination is defined as the act or power of forming a mental image of something not present to the senses or never before wholly perceived in reality.
I like that definition. It’s useful.
Within your essence, you can begin to visualize something that does not exist. You can imagine a career, a relationship, a house, and/or a way of being that does not currently exist in the physical world. You can then feed that image, that visualization, with more thought, more emotions, more will, and more details. You can do this over and over and over until the visualization becomes so powerful that you make decisions to move toward making that visualization a reality. And to a remarkably high degree the visualization in your imagination becomes a reality in your life.
Carefully Deploy Your Imagination
This is such a powerful part of your essence and is such a reliable way to manifest something into reality that it needs to be handled with extra care and attention. Once it is real in your essence and is fed over and over again with detailed thoughts and emotions, your whole being will move toward making it a reality.
This is why it is sooooo important that you clarify your values, what you think is important, and your morals, what you think is the right thing to think, say, and do. Without clarity on your values and morals, your imagination could easily take you toward egotism and not connect to your sense of a healthy essence.
Virtue is what you believe is the right thing to think, say, and do.
Egotism is an exaggerated sense of your own self-importance that can lead to a compulsive need for immediate gratification and instant pleasure.
In order to maintain a healthy essence, it is very important that your imagination is connected to your sense of virtue rather than egotism.
For example, say that a person’s sense of right emotions includes peace, joy, hope, and fulfillment in their lives, but their egotism causes them to focus on greed, lust, revenge, and hatred. Egotism can lead to one set of imaginations while virtue to another.
Greed can lead to imagining ways to steal money.
Lust can lead to imagining relationships outside of their commitments.
Revenge can lead to imagining actions taken against people who bother them.
Hatred can lead to imagining evil things done to people they intensely dislike.
Then the damage becomes even deeper within their essence when their sustained imagination becomes a physical reality.
Of course, their imagination can also lead into visualizing experiences that connect with deep peace, joy, hope, and fulfillment.
Then their reward of a healthy essence becomes even deeper when their sustained imagination becomes a physical reality.
The relationship between your desired essence and your actual imagination is very, very important. Understanding that what you imagine and feed with your emotions and your thoughts and your will oftentimes becomes a reality in your outer world is critically important.
Your imagination is an incredibly important part of your essence. Use it wisely as a powerful tool to actualizing what you truly want. This is another reason why it is very, very important to slow down and really discern what thoughts, emotions, and will you want guiding your life today and in the future. Once an imagination has become solidified, it is difficult to stop that train and re-imagine a different future.
Essential Walk Questions for You to Consider
- Imagine, based on your desired thoughts, emotions, and will, what life can look like for you personally, in your relationships, and in your work.
- After you write down your visualizations, ask yourself if those visualizations fit with your sense of virtue or your sense of egotism, and why you feel that way.
Republishing Articles
My newsletters, Thoughts on Excellence, have been republished in approximately 40 trade magazines, on-line publications, and internal publications for businesses, universities, and not-for-profit organizations over the past 20+ years. If you would like to republish all or part of my monthly articles, please send me an e-mail at dan@thecoughlincompany.com with the name of the article you want in the subject heading. I will send you the article in a word document.