“Live out of your imagination, not your history.” -Stephen Covey
Every Saturday someone in my family takes my grandfather to do his grocery shopping. I love the opportunity to drive him around and hear his stories. He sits in the passenger seat wearing a suit jacket and matching slacks; we discuss his childhood, his time in the Army, and his other miscellaneous jobs he has had throughout his life. One such job included working with chefs born and raised in Germany and France. This week he was telling me about his time learning to cook under these chefs, and the idea of recipes came up in conversation. As he was explaining to me how they did not use recipes he told me “to be a world-renowned chef you have to have courage, guts, and a whole lot of imagination.”
This statement got me contemplating that this is probably true for all aspects of life. Imagination is alive in everything we interact with. I once heard Mary Morrissey speak, and she talked about everything being created twice. First it is conceived in the imagination of a person as an idea and only after that can it be made in the material world. This is true for cars, websites, cell phones, and delicious meals that people prepare.
When I set aside my “normal” way of thinking and how I “should” be approaching a situation it opens up an infinite amount of prospects that are only a thought away. Think of the possibilities if we could all step out of our comfortable way of seeing the world and step into fifteen minutes of pure imagination each day.
Affirmation: Today I allow my great inner resource to show me the new possibilities this life has to offer.
Call to Action: Take time to notice where your imagination leads you and share that experience with someone.
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Change Your Life Friday 
We’re all in quicksand. Don’t struggle, lie still and think. By doing nothing, I am doing something, and it’s a terrible (some)thing. I control by saying I’m not a controller, I manipulate by saying I am not a manipulator. Maybe Hitler thought he was not a bad person, too, just misunderstood. I’m always leaving when it gets too painful to stay. By leaving, by aloofness, I am not winning friends or influencing my people, my wife, my kids. I can’t go back, that’s just leaving again. I imagine I must go forward, find a friend who can help. Do I even have any friends? If I was Batman, I could use something in my utility belt to get us out, but all I have is this cell phone.
How comfortable it is to sit and think within the box. Thank you for the reminder that all is possible when I allow my “pure imagination” to take hold. By using this creative process anything and everything is possible…. Infinitely possible.