The Sanford Berenberg Experience: Message of the Day

Sunday, June 6, 2010

Message of the Day - Harnessing Imagination

Good Morning,

My Current read is "Leadership, The Eleanor Roosevelt Way: Timeless Strategies from the First Lady of Courage" by Robin Gerber (http://www.amazon.com/Leadership-Eleanor-Roosevelt-Way-Strategies/dp/1591840201). Early on in the book in the chapter about Eleanor Roosevelt's childhood the concept of imagination came up.

Robin Gerber shared how the future First Lady was able to use imagination to help her through her difficult childhood. A childhood that included the loss of her father at a young age, a mother who never quite liked her, who also died young, leaving Eleanor and her brother orphans who then moved in with her Grandmother. Her family life improved, but it was never easy. Eleanor grew and developed through each of these experiences.

She continued to use that skill of imagination as a tool in her early adult life, as a wife, mother and spouse to a politician. She used it to create an image to rally people to work toward.

This same skill that helped keep Eleanor Roosevelt sane as a child became a tool drive drive her passion to making the lives of others better.

We too can harness our imagination to paint an image in our minds of where we want to go in life. Using imagination is like taking a goal you have written on paper and painting it as a mural across an entire wall. It creates an image so real, so substantial that we can see, smell and touch our dreams by imagining ourselves achieving the goals.

Everyone has an imagination, although, not everyone uses theirs. Some are afraid of it, some feel it is foolish and others get so caught up in it that reality seems like Never Never Land.

Imagination is like a muscle, the more we use it, the strong it gets. We have to be careful not to overuse it and 'pull' or tear a muscle. No matter how much or little we have used our imagination in the past, we can start using today, to help visualize our goals, and give us that extra push to achieve.

Like Eleanor Roosevelt, we can use our imaginations to help us through the rough times and achieve our destinies.

Enjoy!