Imagine If We Did

“Imagination should be used, not to escape reality, but to create it.” –Colin Wilson

I work with people who are often contemplating one or more decisions or potential choices. They may be thinking about a career change, a move, advocating for themselves at work, asking someone for help or support, having a conversation with a loved one they anticipate will be difficult, even embarking on a volunteer activity or attempting to learn a new skill. Sometimes they haven’t gotten very far in the decision making process because of initial negative emotions that crop up when they begin to envision moving forward. 

It’s essential to acknowledge all of the feelings associated with this process, but I encourage my clients to sit with their feelings while they imagine what moving forward with a decision or plan will feel like from start to finish. I ask, when you imagine how you’ll feel moving through this process, do the feelings change at certain points? Does the anxiety or fear you feel at the beginning give way to comfort and even relief? Does the imagined outcome make the potential negative emotions you associate with the process more tolerable? Can you imagine yourself sitting with them and working through them as you seek your desired end?

While it’s important to consider the concrete realities of a potential decision, it has been my experience that it is frequently the initial negative emotion individuals experience when they begin to imagine the process that prevents them from thinking it through to the outcome. We allow the negative emotions to shut down our imagination, when it is our imagination we need to engage in order to process the steps towards the resolution. While we may ultimately decide not to make the choice we are considering, we owe it to ourselves to imagine if we did.