Who's Sitting on the Strawberry Swing?

Sometimes I'm too lazy to imagine. To really let my ideas take flight and to mentally invest in my ideas sounds tiring. How can someone be too lazy to imagine? Quite honestly, it takes a lot of effort to develop a new idea and make anything worthwhile come out of it. But one thing I absolutely love and respect is when others inspire an imagination within me. The best imaginators inspire creativity in others. But before I delve to deeply into this concept, let's look at the definition:

Def: imagination- the mental power of forming new ideas, images, or concepts of external objects not present to the senses (or rather- things that are not physically present or developed yet). 


Ideas that we imagine are things that do not yet exist- or exist in the context of which we are imagining them. Interesting to ponder? Difficult to wrap your mind around? Being an internal processor, these are the things that I love to sit around and think about. 


I remember back to my junior year of high school (referencing high school like this makes me feel old), when my World Literature teacher made us do this homework assignment.  We had to listen to a classical music piece, in a dark room, laying down with our eyes closed. After we listened to the music, we had to write down what we saw or what the music made us imagine. Some people would see this as a pointless waste of time and others would be all over it and excited to complete the assignment. I was the latter. (Go figure). My point is, I think we should give our imaginations more credit. 


So, lets try an exercise. I know I'm referencing a lot of Coldplay, but have you ever heard of their song called "Strawberry Swing"? What the heck does that mean, 'strawberry swing'? What does that song make you think of? If you haven't heard of it, here is the song: 

Try it, listen to it, close your eyes for the short 4 minutes and 10 seconds and let your mind go. What did it make you think about? What people might come up with can possibly be similar or distinctly different. No two imaginations are the same! And that's so awesome when you think about it, really. 


After listening to this, look up the official music video, and see what the band thinks about their song. it's pretty awesome! Strawberry Swing Video 


Getting down to it- why is this talk of imagination even important? Who cares? The point is, that a tiny thought can grow and manifest into something so much more! But there are three main barriers to allowing these great ideas to grow: fear, lack of confidence, and not allowing the imagination to form. These three things keep a lot of people from actually doing something with their ideas. Fear of what others will think of you if they heard your idea, or rather fear of rejection of your idea. Lack of confidence in your ability to do something with the idea and seeing your own ideas as frivolous. This is not to say that everything will go well when you are fearless, confident, and put blood, sweat, and tears into making your idea a reality. But how would you know unless you try? It's fun and safe to keep your great ideas in your head, where they are safe from being scrutinized by others, or from any real risk. But then you are always living with a giant neon "What If?" sign flashing in your mind. 


I'll end with this; one of my favorite examples of someone turning an imagination into something so much more is the author of one of my favorite book series, J.K. Rowling. Whether you like Harry Potter or not, the fact that an idea that came into her head on a train ride to London exploded into 7 New York Times bestsellers and 8 blockbuster films is amazing! She seized the idea that formed in her mind's eye, wrote it down, and ran with it. Not everyone's story will end up like Rowling's, but if she let her fear, lack of confidence, and squashing the idea get in her way, the world would not have the Harry Potter books and I would be very sad and bored most summers. 


So many great (and ok, not so great) ideas flow through our imagination and if we pay close enough attention to them, we can weed out the ugly and focus on harvesting the good ones to help them grow. :)