Albert Einstein said: “Imagination is more important than knowledge”. I believe he was talking about the limits of knowledge and realized that imagination is limitless. I want to pull out another theme from this quote as well, however. Not only is knowledge limited, but it is also highly influenced by the context of your learning. The point is not that knowledge isn’t important or evil… simply that our culture puts so much emphasis on knowledge that many people miss out on other aspects of growth and the power of your mind.
If you gain knowledge in a ghetto neighbourhood of a poor country, your knowledge will be vastly different than the person who grows up in Beverly Hills and attends the best schools in the US. In other words, your knowledge will always fit your past. This is wonderful on some levels because you have adapted to situations you’ve experienced in the past. The problem is that if you want a future that is far different than you past, you’ll need to gain new knowledge; that old knowledge won’t work all that well because you’ll only keep getting the same results you’ve had in the past. Maybe you went to university and worked extremely hard for a degree. That’s great! I’m positive you learned many using things. I’m also positive that this world is changing quickly and that if you view the world with the knowledge you have from university or high school, you’ll be left in the dust.
Knowledge is limited in two ways: You only know as much as any human has even known about the world through all of our study (that’s a lot, but it is still limited). You also only know what is based on your past experiences of life. This knowledge works great if you want to live the same life your parents lived or other people in the past have lived. But what if you want to do something different? What if you want to change your family tree? What if you want to break free from the relationships and debt and frustration with life and procrastination that has been a life long struggle for you? In that case what you need is not knowledge. What you need is imagination.
Your imagination is not limited by what has taken place in the past! It isn’t even limited by what others have experienced! The people who change and grow in this world have an ability to imagine a reality that does not yet exist for them. When you are able to imagine something that doesn’t yet exist, you will be able to brainstorm ways to reach it.
A favourite quote of mine is taken from something Napoleon Hill said: ‘what your mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve’. What this means is that if you can imagine something for yourself today, even if it does not yet exist, and think about it enough that you begin to believe it is a possibility, then it can become a reality!
Here’s an example. I used to work with a lot of women who came from abusive relationships. When I asked them if they wanted something different they all said yes. But when I asked them what they could do about it, the answer was often: ‘This is all I know’. Any person I have helped in the past has made a crucial change in their life… Are you ready for it? This is the answer to realizing everything you want in life! Do not let allow yourself to ignore this statement simply because it is simply… They have begun to believe it is possible to live a life they haven’t yet lived.
Remember: Every technology that we currently have was once simply an imagined idea. Without the idea, however, we would never have any of the technologies. We wouldn’t even be able to make a fire or use a wheel if someone had not first imagined its possibility. Let this idea sink in for a few minutes. The key for you to realize a life you do not yet have, but desperately want is not back-breaking work or a lucky break or just waiting long enough. The answer is that you need to begin seeing yourself in a different way. First, you need to imagine something for yourself that does not yet exist. Second, you need to believe it is possible. Once these two things happen, you will automatically begin working toward that which you have imagined and come to believe.
In the next couple of months I will be exploring how powerful your beliefs are and what differences in life you can realize as you put my tips into action. I’ve already seen massive changes in the clients I have worked with in the past and I’m so excited about what this could mean for your future!
