Transcript: I’ve just arrived at a local bookstore, and I can’t help but smile to myself when I think about what it is that I’ve come here to get. I never would’ve thought. But I’m finding that in order to keep my imagination alive, sometimes I’ve gotta give myself permission to change my mind.
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I’ve found out in life, through trial and a lot of error, that sometimes it’s in my best interest to allow myself to change my mind. There are a whole number of things that I can think of that are part of my day-to-day experience that I really can’t even imagine living without that only five or six years ago, maybe even less than that, I would have probably turned up my nose at.
Meditation immediately comes to mind. Things like doing yoga instead of maybe lifting weights, stuff like that.
Meet Me in Margaritaville?
On a more basic level, I can think of the time when I went to Universal CityWalk, in Orlando, and there was a Margaritaville there; Jimmy Buffett. I remember going in there and seeing all this stuff that had parrots and cheeseburgers and shark fins and coconut bras on it, and I remember thinking, “Who buys all this stupid crap?” But within a year, I was back in there buying a lot of that stuff.
Jimmy Buffett has become one of the more influential artists that I can think of in all aspects. There’s so many other musicians like Will Kimbrough or Sonny Landreth I never would have heard of if I hadn’t of started to get interested in Jimmy Buffett. I might never have read Herman Wouk, and I read a lot of Ernest Hemingway and Robert Lewis Stevenson because of getting into Jimmy Buffett’s music and writing and getting inspired by him. But my initial reaction was to think that it was just dumb, not for me. Closed mind.
Well, I’m finding that if I can keep an open mind, especially when it comes to cultivating my imagination, sometimes it’s in my best interest to let my old ideas go. But I’ve got to admit, on this one, I did not at all see it coming.
Hogwarts Hubbub? Ho-hum.
I remember when the whole fad first started back in the 90’s; so many people talking about reading these books about some boy who was actually a wizard, who went to some school that looked like a castle where there were other kids who were wizards, which is — well, it’s not that I didn’t like it so much as that I was just so completely and totally not interested at all. But still, there was a little part of me, I guess, that felt like I was missing out or not being, I don’t know, “responsible,” by staying up on the current trend.
Albert Einstein, once said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge.” That’s a pretty interesting thought, isn’t it?
Years later, when the first movie came out, I remember going to see it, watching it, and then when it was done, thinking, “Huh, okay. That’s nice.” I just didn’t care!
Well, now, of course, I’m decades older and I do like to read a lot. I’ve always got a business or some sort of a personal development book on the go, and I’ll often have an audio book that I’ll listen to while I’m on the move, or different podcasts or things like that. I like to learn. I enjoy that. I like learning new things and discovering new things. But I have found, at least for me, there are limits to it. If I try to do that too much, especially later in the day or at night, I won’t be able to get to sleep because my mind is racing trying to process all the stuff that I’m trying to pour into my mind.
Magic Of Imagination
So I got to a point where I thought, “Maybe I should “be looking to read something, or get into some sort of material that will stimulate my imagination more than my intellect.” Especially just before I go to sleep.
I was searching for ideas of what I hadn’t read before that might work. And I thought about that wizard kid going to some castle-type school that I know I for sure was not into back in the day. And I thought, “Might that actually work?”
A pretty smart dude, Albert Einstein, once said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge.” That’s a pretty interesting thought, isn’t it? And I’ve found that in order to stimulate my imagination and to keep finding new ways to do that, sometimes it’s in my best interest to let go of some of my old ideas. Or in other words, give myself permission to change my mind. And in this case, I’m really glad I did.
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