“Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last you create what you will.” George Bernard Shaw

Imagine that you could go anywhere, do anything or be anyone. Imagine money was no issue. Imagine you could follow all the dreams in your heart. What would you do? Who would you be? Where would you go? Shut your eyes right now and take a moment. Just take a few moments to really imagine the life you want to have. What comes to your mind?

I did this exercise a many years ago at a businesswomen’s group. It was a little uncomfortable. I do not like to shut my eyes when I am in a group – it makes me feel weird. Yet I did what the speaker asked and shut my eyes. And then my answer came blaring. It was as if it had spoken out loud! I would speak. I would speak for a living. Nothing else came to mind just that I wanted to speak and encourage others through my speaking.

I was a little shocked. You see as we went around the room and people shared what came to their minds. They shared dreams of the Caribbean, starting a new business, acting, skydiving and retiring. Then there was me – I would speak. I felt a bit odd.

I always secretly dreamed of being a motivational speaker. I have dreamed but never spoken it out loud. I couldn’t speak it out loud or imagine it because I doubted. I did not believe it could actually happen. Yet in the silence of the moment I let down my guard and my dream came floating up to the surface. It peeked up at me and said, “here I am, take me, I’m yours!”

I left the meeting and felt weird. What was up with this speaking thing? Why if I had all the money in the world would I speak? Normal people would just want to go and lay on a beach somewhere. Yet I wanted to speak. My heart told me I was created to speak. My mind told me it was impossible. My thoughts tormented me, “What do you have to say, who would listen to you?” I had always believed I’d never be a motivational speaker but now there was a hole in my thinking. My dream had peeked out. It had intensity. It was real. I didn’t make it up it just came. Now that it was here, it wouldn’t stay down. It kept poking and prodding at me. It was telling me something. I had to follow or I would lose it.

I began to really think about speaking. I began to imagine myself in front of thousands. I saw myself living my dream and it scared me. I still couldn’t really believe it. Yet I was beginning to get over the doubts. I could almost see it. I was imaging living my dream. By imagining I was letting the light in and the light was breaking apart the doubts. Before I could really accept the dream I had to imagine it. I had to see it and then come to believe it.

Yet I fought with myself. Public Speaking felt like such a personal thing. I was embarrassed to tell anyone that I wanted to speak. I felt conceited. I felt embarrassed. I felt that others must think I thought I was pretty special and that I thought I had something really awesome to share. It wasn’t that. I wanted to speak because it was who I was. It was who I was created to be. It wasn’t about conceit and yet when I went to share my dream with others I felt small and uncomfortable and weird. I hated being weird. Why couldn’t I imagine lying on a beach? That was much safer and it was normal.

Just Imagine! I did and look where it got me. Now I was face to face with my dream. My dream had surfaced at the weirdest time and in an uncomfortable place and yet now that it was here – it wouldn’t leave. I was stuck. I had a choice to make. Would I shove it back down and quit imagining? I tried that but it wouldn’t go away. It was as if this thing had a life of it’s own and it wasn’t going to release it’s hold on me.

As soon as I shoved it back down, it popped up again. It came at me in dreams, through people, and out of nowhere. It was really bugging me! I was being constantly tormented and it drove me nuts. Okay …I’ll let myself imagine. I don’t know what good its going to do but I’ll do it, just leave me alone. I still didn’t believe it could actually happen…It was just a dream- a silly dream.

As I began to try to accept the dream, I was face to face with my own words. I have confessed to everyone I know that they must dream and dream out loud. Now I was being confronted with my own convictions. I couldn’t stand it. I was different -I protested. My dream is different than wanting to go to Bermuda-this is real. Yet no matter how hard I tried to convince myself this dream was different-I knew it wasn’t.

I had a choice to make. I could either accept my dream or let it die. I could imagine it happening or crawl back into my safety zone, there I could spend the rest of my life thinking, “what if?” I decided to continue. To let the dream in and imagine it. I would stew over it and just let it soak for a while. It was scary but I new I had no choice. I had to allow the dream to take its course. I had to let it in, imagine it and follow it. I wanted to see where it would go. I still didn’t believe that it would actually happen. I knew I could speak but I doubted I would ever be able to make a living speaking doing it. I had to let go, regardless of the outcome.

Regardless of where you are or how much money you make. What would you do right now if you could do anything in the world – just imagine!

7 Ways to Imagine a Bigger Life:
1. Write a 101 List. Start your list now. Write down all the things you want to do before you die. This will take some time but the end result is worth it. There is power in writing down all that we want to accomplish and then reading it from time to time.
2. Study others. Study people who have great imaginations and who have went after their dreams with all their heart.
3. Ask yourself the question. If you had no fear and could not fail and money was no object, what would you do? Write down the answer to this question and think about it daily.
4. Create visual reminders. Create visual reminders of your dreams and of things that help you imagine. By placing visuals throughout your house and car, you will be reminded daily to let your imagination run.
5. Create a support group. Gather together a group of women who want to go after their dreams and who are committed to imagining and creating results. Get together regularly to support one another.
6. Have fun. Imagining is supposed to be fun. Keep negative thoughts away from your imagination. It doesn’t matter if you don’t believe something can happen or not – just let yourself imagine what could be.
7. It is possible. Tell yourself daily that it is possible. I once wore a bracelet for two years that said, “It is possible.” It is possible – believe it.