Imagination is the Very Act of Living
For all you out there who are longing for retirement, I have only one thing to say: it’s awesome. I’m having so much fun. Going places when I want, doing things when I want, waking up when I want, or not doing anything if I want. Excepting anything to do with the government (like Social Security, Medicare, taxes, and all that bureaucratic baloney), retirement is shaping up to be everything I ever hoped for. Well, almost. There’s always something, isn’t there? Something more that might have been, but just didn’t quite make it over the hump to reality. It’s okay. Despite some really big setbacks, I’ve still got everything I need to fill my bucket list with check marks.
I’ve got many interests; good books to learn from and entertain me, golf to confound me and bestow flashes of brilliance upon me, sports cars to fill me with the illusion of motoring greatness and the excitement of enthusiasts, photography to preserve precious moments and beautiful scenes, a boat to find the peace of water and untamed wilds of nature, travel to see new things and be enthralled by new places, writing to recall our history in concert with capturing great memories on camera, and family to love and share these fabulous experiences.
I don’t feel bad about sitting around for a day. Sometimes we just need recharging; it feels like such a luxury to now be able to do that when needed. It’s easier to listen to the heart and mind now, instead of ignoring it because there are so many important things still to be done today. Sure, there are still important things to do, but they’re important to me, not generally to anyone else; my obligations are few now and I love the freedom of it.
Maybe I had that freedom all along. Maybe I never gave myself the luxury of recognizing that power. I may have missed something really important there – I could have exercised that power all along. All those years when I thought I was exercising self-empowerment and directing my ambition, maybe I was missing the state of true control. Could it be I wasn’t looking high enough over the treetops, wasn’t visualizing my imaginings to the highest degree? In some respects, I think I sold myself short. Most of us do.
It’s hard, especially when you’re young, not to believe all the people who tell you why a dream, an ambition is beyond your means, your skills, your abilities, your talents – beyond you. You will NEVER get there! Stop trying! Come back to earth; you’re not good enough. The genius of visualizing your imaginings is a real thing. Leonardo da Vinci proved that over 500 years ago. He exercised his imagination; it was integral to his everyday life. For Leonardo, imagining was the very act of living. We would do well to learn from him. Nothing is too frivolous, too inane, too obvious, too complex, too incredible to be ignored.
While on our recent ski trip, we dropped in to visit an old friend and his wife. During our hours of conversation, he reminded me of a decade’s old conclusion he and several bachelor friends had come to. Around this table of friends the subject of my exploits and talents had become a topic. “We all knew,” Jeff said, “if you had concentrated on being really good at just one thing, instead of the forty-two things you were always doing, you had the talent to be a pro at it. It could have been anything – you just needed to focus on one thing!”
Mostly, they were talking about athletics – baseball, skiing, basketball, whatever. They were convinced, much more convinced than I. Now I realize they were probably right – and there were other things I could have done, too. But I did two big things wrong.
One, I listened to all the people who said it wasn’t possible. I let their voices displace my inner voice. Two, I was multi-talented, and I couldn’t decide it there was just one thing I wanted to do. Well, actually, I decided there wasn’t just one thing I wanted to do. I was having fun doing those “forty-two things” Jeff had alluded to. Devoting all my time to one of them was no longer in my psyche – it had been washed from me by the doubting voices I allowed in. I had allowed someone to quench my fire.
The lesson: keep your imagination, your dreams. Define your goals, exercise your ambition. Be persistent, consistent and forge ahead. Don’t be distracted by the naysayers. They are always there, always present, constantly negative, always trying to beat back greatness. Don’t listen. Put on the blinders; find ways to manifest and actualize your goals. Go for it!
That’s my only regret – that I allowed someone to put out that fire. But life is always full of opportunities. As I grew older, I began to realize what I had done. All that time I was listening to, and looking for approval from, the wrong people. When I began to stop listening to outside voices, other visions and ambitions began taking shape. That’s when good things began happening.
Now I have a life I love. It’s not everything I ever wanted or everything I thought it would be. Let’s be real – the vagaries of life don’t always work that way. We learn things as we go and our list of wants and dreams change. But I have all of the most important things I ever dreamed of, and some things I never thought about. All because I stopped listening to other voices and began listening to my own. I hope you’ve learned that, too. If not, why not? The time is now.
