The downside of having two older brothers (8 and 6 years older) and sharing a bedroom was that you got the bottom bed of the 3-tiered bunk that your dad built to house you all. Most nights you end up getting your head stepped on when someone climbed in or out of the rack, Three Stooges style.

The upside is that when you are 7 years old, your older brothers can scrape together enough cash for a stereo, headphones, and a decent collection of albums and 8-tracks. Beatles. Doobies. Frampton. Nugent. Rush. Classic Aerosmith. The Who. Kinks… Some good stuff in there. And I don’t remember either Matt or Ned giving me any guff about using their stuff. I suppose being inmates in the same asylum created some camaraderie.

While I still love all that music today, none of the bands grabbed hold of my imagination like KISS. The lyrics of their classic albums are seared into my memory.

(Listening to Detroit Rock City from Alive II as I type this…)

I’m not trying to sell anyone on KISS. Like all art, they mean to me what they mean to me. While it’s totally cool when you connect with someone who resonates in the same way regarding music (that’s why the collective experience of concerts amplify the fun), I’m past the stage of trying to validate my preferences by trying to get someone else to like what I like.

No, I mention KISS because I recently re-discovered the image at the top of this post. This is the inner sleeve of the KISS ALIVE II album, and well, I thought (and still think) it’s tremendously cool. As a boy, I’d listen to the live album on headphones, hear the energy of the band, the crowd, and allow myself to be transported by this image.

My imagination kicked into overdrive.

In short, the image told me ANY FANTASTIC THING YOU CAN IMAGINE IS POSSIBLE.

(I still admire Gene Simmons’ imagination).

 

I am reminded of all of this because your imagination is the foundational building block of everything you create in your life.

If you want to experience it, you have to imagine it first. 

While that might not sound like anything new and elicit lots of “yeah, yeah… sure, I know that…” when it comes to your desires, this is really the key to the kingdom.

I see lots of people working really hard, doing all the “right” things to be successful. They get up early, put in long hours, run themselves a bit ragged and put lots of pressure on themselves… the idea being that somehow all this work will lead them somewhere… But I find when I ask people this simple question —

WHAT DO YOU REALLY WANT?

— I get a lot of hemming and hawing for answers. And if they do have an answer it’s vague enough (“I just want to be happy/financially secure/successful”) to mean next to nothing. As a result of having no clear, grounded desires, they suffer and strive for little return.

My point is that most people never use the most powerful creation tool in the box — IMAGINATION.

When I coach people, I find that they are eager to make changes. When we identify a root issue as to where/why they’re not allowing their desires into their lives, the next question out of their mouths tends to be “So what do I DO now?”

When I tell them to go sit somewhere quiet for 15 minutes and IMAGINE their desires coming into their lives… IMAGINE how it would FEEL to already have whatever it is you’re wanting… well, there’s often a sense of let-down. They’d rather run outside and build a shed made out of concrete blocks than sit quietly and imagine. I think this is because mild suffering feels more like DOING and we mistakenly equate DOING with CREATING.

So, I’ll say it again…

 

Creating does not happen without imagining.

 

Imagining is the work. 

When you imagine your desires, you see them, feel them, taste them, touch them — you make them real. You ALLOW yourself to have your desires NOW instead of continuing to put them off for some later time.

Imagining is the work.

Imagining requires your to focus your attention. Imagining requires you to be conscious. Imagination requires you to let go of “what you think you can get” in favor of the truth of your desires.

 

Imagination is the work. 

Imagination requires you to consciously use your mind to form the image of what you desire. (Before writing this, I never connected that the word “imagination” is rooted in “image.” Not sure how I missed that for so long, but I did.)

Imagination is the work. 

You can be, do, and have anything you want. You have the same fantastical manifesting powers as anyone who has ever lived. It’s just a question of what you allow yourself to imagine.

 

So if you want it, do the real work.