There might have been occasions when you bought a pair of shoes or a few dresses for your children while you were out but later found that they were not of fitting-sizes as the kids tried them. Even during these times of online purchase, you would have sometimes returned unfitting goods and asked for replacements with bigger/smaller sizes to suit you. Is it possible to avoid, if not completely, wastage of time and effort in selecting something that will be suitable for you even when you are bereft of the metrics of the object to be selected? It is possible through equipping oneself with the powers of visualization which is one among the triumvirate that kindles a man from inside, with dream and imagination being the other two. Self-kindling is the process of intellectual churning in a man, which energizes and automates him on a mission-mode. It is the internal light that shows the ways of life.
Visualization is the power of mentally creating an imaged-replica of something that exists as an idea which is developed from a physical object or an intangible. It is the outward projection of a concluded-idea by giving physical features to it on your mind —a mock-up by the mental makeup. It is the bridge from theory to practical. If science is theory, then technology is its practicality, and that which is built on the mind of an inventor who transforms science into technology is visualization. Stephen Covey in his much famed book: “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” cites ‘everything is created twice’ while explaining the habit: ‘Begin with the end in mind,’ by saying that first creation is the visualization of second creation, i.e., output.
Visualization is as difficult and involving as the actual creation of an object, for every nitty-gritty of the creation has to be worked out and perfected in the realm of thoughts before a man can venture out to create the object physically. These difficulty and involvedness are imbibed in the word: visualization itself as its break up will give us visual — see — and ization — the process of making or doing. The founders of the English language were so brilliant that they did not make the noun of visual as ‘visuality’ or ‘visualness’ but visualization because ization in visualization captures the word’s essence: the process of — the process of seeing something in the mind-field in its physical format based on an idea about it. Visualization has two cousins: dreaming and imagination. All three are related to the extent that they are different faculties of mind, with each one serving its own purpose in the overall scheme of self-kindling.
‘Dare to dream’ and ‘ Dream Big’ are motivational prodding making a man to think uninhibitedly and unrestrainedly to leapfrog in order to better himself. Dreams preexist ideas, meaning man can dream for and about anything even when he does not possess any idea about how to go for it. We live to actualize our dreams, so it is important to have dreams. But there is not-so-subtle difference between dreaming and dreamer. A dreamer perpetually lives in dreams and fails to move forward to actualize the dreams. But a man who dreams — dreams big — comes out of his dream to generate ideas to fructify his dream.
Dreaming is the preamble to the foundation of achievement that one aspires for. It is the pre-foundational energy that kindles you from inside. Dreaming can be compared to groundbreaking ceremony for construction of a building. A dreamer will continue to live in groundbreaking ceremonies, one after another, with none taking shape as they intended to be. But one who dreams will further move forward to build the foundation, then, the edifice of one’s dream by generating and actualizing the ideas that are needed for it. Late Abdul Kalam Azad, one of my heroes and a great humanist, exhorted the youths to dream and dream BIG as he knew that unless ‘the ground’ was ‘broken,’ no construction of future could begin.
“Imagination is more important than knowledge,” the great words from the genius Albert Einstein. Implied in the words is that imagination is more potent than knowledge to slingshot you to infinite heights in whatever arena you are engaged in. I wish to say that imagination is creating something out of absolute nothingness but have to restate it as imagination is creating something out of nothingness, for there are peripheral seedings of knowledge that lie around the nothingness, which may or may not have consequential impacts on imagination. Imagination does not have an idea to begin with, rather idea is the first output of imagination. The idea grows as your thoughts weave on it, taking shapes and forms which were oblivious hitherto, ultimately leading to the creation of an image that captures the essence of the idea. Imagination has limits so long as the boundaries are set by you. Imagination takes its logical conclusion when you are able to add flesh and blood to it. In other words, if the initial output of imagination, that is, idea, can be shaped up into an image that can go functionally alive in terms of rewarding, then your imagination has been paid off.
Are there any linkages among these three faculties of mind? In the sequencing of kindling that happens inside a man, dreaming comes first, followed by imagination and visualization. Dream aspires you for the sky, and imagination weaves the ways to the sky. Unless you dream, you do not get inclined yourself to imagine, so imagination begins from where dream stops. In other words, imagination is the creation in the offing once the laying of the cornerstone for the foundation of your future gets over. Visualization stands on its own and is independent of dreaming or imagination, but I am for characterizing visualization as a byproduct of dreaming and imagination dynamics.
The triumvirate does not come from external source but a deliberate and conscious effort by a man to set himself on fire internally. A man who dreams big without being perpetually in his dreams and that who continues from the groundbreaking done by dreaming through imagination gets energized from inside. Such a man is tracked to push his imagination beyond frontiers and bring fruition to it with ideas as well as aided by importunity and hardworking. Do practice visualization as it takes you to a rewarding level without having to be there physically. Let loose the triumvirate to kindle you from inside in your journey of life.
Nowhere Perspectives 