Albert Einstein once said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.” Or to put it more simply, imagination has been, and will be, the driving force behind every discovery and creation achieved by humanity.
Think about it. Almost every great accomplishment or invention throughout history began in someone’s imagination. People used to say if man were meant to fly, we would have been born with wings. The Wright brothers imagined a flying machine and then made it a reality. Thomas Edison imagined a way to use electricity to light up a room with the flick of a switch. After countless attempts and experiments, on October 22, 1879, the first light bulb burned for 13.5 hours. In fact, many of the things we take for granted today were once dismissed as impossible (flight), or nothing but a fad (the bicycle), or impractical (the automobile).
All of the objections to those and hundreds of other inventions throughout history were overcome because of someone allowing themselves to believe in their imagination. The modern calculator that you can pick up in any store today has more computing power in it than the room-sized computers that guided the first rocket launch. How crazy is that? No one ever thought a computer could fit on a desk, and now most people carry one around in their pocket or wear it on their wrist! They’re called smart phones and smart watches. Considering how outlandish some ideas were once considered that we now take for granted, it’s exciting to wonder what kinds of ideas floating around in people’s heads today, ideas we might think are crazy, will be commonplace for our grandchildren.
But the things we imagine don’t have to be ideas that will change the world. Maybe they’re just thoughts that will change your world, or your own little part of it. Maybe you’re imagining yourself with a perfect career, a brand new car, a beautiful home, or any of a dozen other things. I know I have lots of things that I imagine each and every day (*cough*…best-selling novel…*cough*). Don’t let anyone tell you the things you daydream about are crazy or impossible. The things we imagine become the seeds of our dreams. And like actual seeds, they need care and nurturing to blossom into reality. Like sun and rain to the seed, persistence and belief are the things that will help our imaginings become reality.
So don’t be afraid to let your imagination run wild once in a while. Don’t dismiss your daydreams as impossible. You’ll never know what might grow with enough persistence and belief to nurture it unless you give it a chance. Let that seed take root, and see what happens.
Just imagine!
Official page of fantasy author, G. David Walker 
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