‘Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.’- Albert Einstein
Clever man, that Einstein, eh? Or was he crazy? One of the greatest things about him, I’m sure you’ll agree, is the idea Einstein was both logical and philosophical:
‘Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.’ Brilliant.
As children, we’re encouraged to use our imagination as much as possible; explore, discover, make mistakes, try and fail. We're embraced as we attach a tail to our backsides, scribble whiskers on our cheeks, scuttle around on hands and knees and call ourselves a dog, lion or cat. We’re smiled at as we use funny voices and howl and growl, making $hit up as long as it’s not lies and doesn’t hurt others.
Then we go to school. And while still encouraged to use our imaginations, the shift subtly starts heading toward filling our heads with methodology and retention of information. Facts and figures and doing the research to support these facts and figures take over. So when did it get to the tipping point where the majority of our being became governed by the logical side of us, do you remember?
It could be a shock to wake up one day and realise our imagination has practically left the building. Yet we want to take on the world. Well here’s the thing: there will be no taking on the world until we embrace our imagination.
I don't know about you, but imagination (coupled with music) saved my life. I'll never forget what tipped me ‘over the edge’ - that precise moment it smacked me I needed to escape to my haven, the one that resides within me, therefore goes with me no matter where I am, all without stepping a shackled foot beyond the prison of my house.You wouldn't have been able to see the bars that contained me (no one did). But the bars were all I could see.
I broke free of those bars through imagination, my ability to go anywhere I wanted, no matter where I was. And I did it by leaping well beyond my head to that plane where I could fly, no plane required.
All of us have it, available to us at any time. It’s a place of pure magic, so why aren’t we using it more? Because we're no longer children, and as adults, we need to be pragmatic and practical about the world? Because logic says we can't? Well, if that's the case, does that mean Einstein was crazy? And if he wasn't, yet we don't believe in the power of imagination, who’s the 'Crazy', really, then?
I’m not alone in the belief of imagination. I mean, I can only speak from personal experience, but RED11, the agency I co-founded in 2005, was essentially, for me at least, seeded from my imagination, not thought. Because while a seed is like a single thought, it can't seed without imagination. Because a thought is way-too-quickly overshadowed, or downright annihilated, by other thoughts: ‘You’ll never do it…’ ‘Who are you kidding?’, ‘You’re not good enough…’ 'He/she/they/everyone is better than you...'
No. It was imagination, that ‘thing’ beyond the mind, that made $hit happen for me. I was 30 when I sat at a model booking table, my first day on the job as a model agent and I imagined owning my own model agency by the time I was 40. It became my reality by the time I was 37.
So you can imagine how stoked I was when I met these two beautiful boys in BEN & WIREMU, aka the MacBros.
Not only are they gorgeous, they use their imagination and write and create music, too (see my post Q:DOES MUSIC SAVE LIVES? A:YES for their song, BETTER DAY and check out my SCOUT page for more on these talented hotties).
One of my favourite songs they’ve written is called SECRET GETAWAY (a small section of their lyrics are at the bottom of this post).
With summer just around the corner, you don’t need to wait until it arrives to enjoy a getaway. Just use your imagination NOW to warm you from the inside out. Now that, along with music, is what I call balance.
And speaking of IMAGINATION and sweet summer sun, as this post draws to a close, I thought I’d share PERCY, THE PHOTOBOMBING PINK FLAMINGO born from my imagination.
Thanks again to the amazing crew at KINGSIZE STUDIOS, for helping us turn our dreams into reality by encouraging and pushing me and RYAN META to use your place like our lounge and creative space, so we can show the world what’s being going on beyond our heads.
And lastly, with almost 64 million Youtube views, the world is at a tipping point in seeing value beyond what you can see, hear, touch, smell and taste. So how could I not put this in: JOHN LENNON, IMAGINE
Thanks for joining me! If you find stuff here that could be helpful to others, share it.
Until next time,
SECRET GETAWAY LYRICS, written by Ben & Wiremu McCarthy, aka THE MACBROS
My secret getaway, is a mentality where I can create my own depiction of reality
And in the process hopefully I rapidly escape the madness and catastrophe I'm always battling
So saddle in, and ride the wave, to a different kind of place, where negative thoughts vanish without a trace
and evaporate through the atmosphere and in to outer space
Try to imagine, perfection at its maximum, if heaven was a mental image and you captured it
And simple adjectives aren't enough to get someone you just met, to even begin to fathom it
Cause its a tropical, psychological obstacle but once the art is mastered you are able to conquer the impossible
I'ts only seen in modern day society, so come escape from the hate and take a ride with me
Relax your mind, and let it drift...lift your life to new heights with enlightenment and if,
you wanna come and visit this magnificent existence, sleeps a one way ticket
(Chorus)
Its my getaway, its my getaway, A destination we can visit if we wanna make a change
Its my getaway, its my getaway, Just relax kick back and let your troubles float astray
Its my getaway, its my getaway, An infinite oasis and all you need is patience
Its my getaway, its my getaway, ITS MY GETAWAYYYY