The Power of Imagination

The power of imagination is the power to picture something before it exists, and nearly everything in your life started that way, from the home you live in to the cake you baked last weekend. When you imagine on purpose, you are already planning the life you want, and that is a kind of strength any of us can use today.

Think about how often you do this without noticing. We picture the wedding, the holiday, the new job, the conversation we're nervous about. We see the end result in our minds long before we start.

When we're children, imagination comes easily. We've seen so little of the world that anything seems possible. Then life happens. We get disappointed, let down, passed over. We keep imagining, but our experience starts colouring the pictures, usually in a darker shade. Sometimes we stop expecting anything at all.

So we tread carefully. We poke around the edges of things instead of diving in. If that sounds familiar, you're in very good company, and the good news is that imagination is a habit you can wake back up.

Why does our imagination shrink as we grow up?

Part of the answer lies in how memory and imagination work together. Harvard psychologists Daniel Schacter and Donna Rose Addis describe a large overlap between the mental and brain processes we use to remember the past and the ones we use to imagine the future. We build our pictures of tomorrow out of pieces of yesterday.

That helps explain why a few hard years can make the future look smaller. The raw material we're working with has changed. It also means you can bring fresh pieces in: new places, new people, new books, new small wins.

Try this: this week, do one thing you have never done before, however tiny. Take a different road home, cook a dish from a country you've never visited, or sit in a different chair. You're giving your imagination new material to build with.

Imagine the obstacle as well as the dream

There is one honest caution here. Daydreaming about a perfect outcome feels lovely in the moment, but psychologist Gabriele Oettingen at New York University found that indulging in positive fantasies about the future predicted more symptoms of depression months later, even though it felt good at the time.

What seems to help is pairing the dream with reality. Oettingen calls this mental contrasting: you picture the outcome you want, then picture the main obstacle inside you that stands in the way, then decide what you will do when it shows up. A 2021 meta-analysis of 21 studies found this approach, combined with simple if-then plans, had a small to moderate effect on people reaching their goals.

Try this: write one wish in a single line. Underneath, write the best outcome you can imagine. Then write the obstacle in you that is most likely to get in the way. Finish with one sentence that begins "If that happens, I will..." If you enjoy putting pen to paper, our guide to manifestation journaling goes deeper into this kind of practice.

Now that you know how imagination works, here are some of our favourite thoughts on it, gathered from writers, scientists, artists and dreamers. Read them slowly. Notice which one makes you want to pick up a pen.

Quotes about imagination as a way of planning

"Without leaps of imagination, or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning."

Gloria Steinem. We couldn't agree more. Steinem treats dreaming and planning as close cousins, so if you aren't imagining your life, you're leaving its shape to chance. Reach for this one when someone tells you to stop daydreaming.

"Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world."

Albert Einstein. This one is genuinely his. Quote Investigator traces it to a 1929 interview in The Saturday Evening Post. Facts can be looked up. What you build from them is where imagination comes in.

"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. This is our all-time favourite. In three short steps, Shaw describes how we create almost everything in our lives, one small decision at a time. Try saying the steps out loud with your own wish in the middle.

"What is now proved was once only imagined."

William Blake. Everything you rely on today, from the light switch to the language you think in, started as someone's picture. Your present is built on imagination from the past, yours and other people's.

"You have all the reason in the world to achieve your grandest dreams. Imagination plus innovation equals realization."

Denis Waitley. A formula as simple as it gets. Keep it handy for the days when you have plenty of ideas and very little follow-through.

"The only limit to your impact is your imagination and commitment."

Tony Robbins. Robbins adds the second half that daydreams often leave out. Imagination sets the direction, and commitment is what actually gets you there.

Quotes about imagination and reality

"Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere."

Carl Sagan. Sagan wrote this in Cosmos, and it fits a scientist perfectly: every discovery begins as a guess about a world nobody has seen yet. If you feel stuck somewhere you don't want to be, start by picturing the way out.

"This world is but a canvas to our imagination."

Henry David Thoreau. If the world is your canvas, what are you painting today? And if you don't love what's on it so far, remember that painters work in layers. You can always add another.

"Imagination is the only weapon in the war against reality."

Usually credited to Lewis Carroll. The attribution is shaky. Quote Investigator credits the idea to the writer Benjamin De Casseres, who published a version of it in 1916. Whoever said it first, it's a comfort on the days when reality feels like too much.

"Everything you can imagine is real."

Widely credited to Pablo Picasso. Read it as an artist's invitation: what you picture is real enough to act on.

"Reality leaves a lot to the imagination."

John Lennon. Many people read this as a complaint about reality. We hear something hopeful in it. Reality leaves room, and imagination is how we fill it. If today isn't what you'd hoped, that room is still there.

"Imagination creates reality."

Richard Wagner. Three words that echo Blake and Lennon. When this many very different people keep arriving at the same idea, it's worth listening.

"The world of reality has its limits; the world of imagination is boundless."

Jean Jacques Rousseau. A good one to come back to when a plan feels boxed in. Write down the limits, then let yourself imagine past them for five minutes.

"There are no rules of architecture for a castle in the clouds."

Gilbert K. Chesterton. In imagination, you make the rules, or you don't make any at all. Give yourself permission to draft the wildest version of a plan before you edit it down.

"The power of imagination created the illusion that my vision went much farther than the naked eye could actually see."

Nelson Mandela. These are the words of a man who spent many years in a prison cell. Imagination can widen a small room. It can do the same for a small season of life.

"The imagination is the golden pathway to everywhere."

Terence McKenna. Every journey you've ever taken started with picturing the place first. Choose one place, real or not yet real, and picture it in detail tonight.

Quotes to keep your sense of wonder

"Laughter is timeless, imagination has no age and dreams are forever."

Often credited to Walt Disney. Wikiquote lists it as misattributed, so we can't promise he said it. The thought is still true. Imagination has no age, and you are never too old to play.

"The man who has no imagination has no wings."

Muhammad Ali. Coming from a boxer famous for his bold predictions, this one lands. What would you attempt if you let yourself picture it that boldly?

"You're only given a little spark of madness. You mustn't lose it."

Robin Williams. Guard the silly, playful part of you. It's often where your best ideas are hiding.

"If you fall in love with the imagination, you understand that it is a free spirit. It will go anywhere, and it can do anything."

Alice Walker. Imagination doesn't like a leash. Give it a free afternoon now and then, with no goal attached.

"Imagination is the true magic carpet."

Norman Vincent Peale. No ticket, no luggage, no waiting. Close your eyes for two minutes and go somewhere you love.

"Imagination is the soil that brings dreams to life."

Anonymous. Dreams need somewhere to grow. Keep your soil rich with curiosity, rest and new experiences, and see what comes up.

"Bring ideas in and entertain them royally, for one of them may be the king."

Mark Van Doren. What idea are you entertaining today? Are you rerunning something from the past, or making room for something new?

"Trust that little voice in your head that says, 'Wouldn't it be interesting if…'; and then do it."

Duane Michals. How often have you listened to that little voice? Next time it speaks up, write down what it says before you talk yourself out of it.

Quotes to help you imagine forward

"To bring anything into your life, imagine that it's already there."

Richard Bach. Try it with something small first. Picture tomorrow morning going smoothly, in detail, and notice how you move through it.

"Limitations live only in our minds. But if we use our imaginations, our possibilities become limitless."

Jamie Paolinetti. Write down one limit you have been taking for granted. Then ask whether it's a fact or a habit of thought.

"If you can imagine it, you can achieve it. If you can dream it, you can become it."

William Arthur Ward. Read this one alongside the obstacle exercise above. Dreaming is where becoming starts, and planning for the bumps keeps it going. If big dreams make you nervous, these myths about pursuing big dreams might ease your mind.

"Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere."

Widely shared as Albert Einstein. We couldn't trace this one to anything he wrote or said on record, so treat the attribution with care. Logic gets you through the to-do list. Imagination decides what goes on it.

"Live out of your imagination, not your history."

Stephen Covey. Covey, one of our favourite writers, asks us to stop replaying the past and start picturing what comes next. Your history shaped you. Your imagination gets to decide where you go from here.

How do you start using your imagination again?

Begin small. Pick one quote from this page and write it at the top of a page in your journal. Underneath, describe one ordinary day a year from now, in as much detail as you can: what you see when you wake up, what you eat, who you talk to. Then circle one thing on that page you could take a step toward this week.

If your imagination keeps drifting to worst-case pictures and it's wearing you down, please talk to a doctor or therapist. That kind of worry is common, and help works.

We believe imagination is the first draft of every life, and that the draft is never finished. Tonight, before you fall asleep, picture one good thing about tomorrow and let it be the first seed you plant.

Which quote spoke to you? Share it in the comments, along with what you're imagining next.