Imagination

The way you image yourself drives many of the decisions we make in life.

Ever looked at a suit or dress online and thought, wow, that would make me feel good about myself if I had that? Look at cigarette ads back in the 60’s and 70’s that always pictured some good-looking couple in their sports car or in a sailboat or dining at fancy restaurant. You never saw a smoking add with a chubby, out of -shape guy puffing on a Marlboro sitting in his lawn chair. No, it was always some rugged, good looking cowboy riding a horse. The idea was to make people chase that image and think if they started smoking, they would look that young, be that good looking and be that manly or that beautiful.

In our own minds it is that way also. I have owned three Jeep Grand Wagoneer’s and every time I sold one, I swore I would never buy another one. Yet, I have had three and all three times they were a mechanical nightmare and drove like a big lawnmower. I had this self-image of how great I would look and feel driving an old classic Wagoneer. Well, the truth is when I got it and drove it, I didn’t feel the way I thought it would. Ha

It’s like that in life, we get these glimpses of what this or that would look and feel like and then we began to imagine ourselves in that situation and our desires began to move toward that.

I had this guy one time I worked with that was always looking for another job while he was working his current job. The problem with doing that is he began to imagine himself in that other new job with the prestige he thought it would bring him. You guessed it, he left the company and went after his imagined dream and you guessed it again, it didn’t turn out the way he wanted it to.

How many marriages are torn apart because of this very thing? When you let your heart dwell on something long enough and consistent enough it can cause you to make all sorts of changes in your life.  The wisdom would be to make sure you are careful to separate imaginary versus reality.

Being old, ugly, uneducated with a speech impediment has always kept me from imagining some big job and some big title. Maybe these limitations were a gift in disguise, because I am just grateful for where I am. KT

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