Just play...

I have quite the imaginative 9 year old nephew. He reminds me so much of myself, its almost weird. Like him, my favourite word used to be “Imagine...”, followed by some outlandish possibility or improbability. Last night, he proclaims: “Imagine the clouds were green and when it rains, it rains money!” :) We all thought it to be funny, but I found his thinking rather amusing. He associates money with the colour green, as it is in the US. Something he must have picked up on TV, watching movies and especially cartoons. But thereafter, he kind of corrected himself by saying, if the clouds were pink, it would rain R50’s and blue clouds, R100’s, etc.

This reminded me of the good old days of being young. When the world was a playground of possibilities. When nothing about the way the world works was really clear to you and everything was new and interesting. When stretching your mind was second nature and thinking outside of the box was anything, but.
The limited knowledge we had, reinforced us to think, even though our assumptions were based on a lot of false information we’ve picked up along the kiddie way.

As adults we need to re-learn how to be creative and stretch our minds, unless of course thats what you do for a living or you’re overly right-brained... Thinking outside of the box is almost a foreign technique. Something thats almost natural when we were kids, somehow got lost amongst all the opinions, judgements, norms, responsibilites, understanding of the world, earning good money, and then some... and often not exercising this part of your brain, can result in “brain numb-ness”, as I like to call it, thick-headedness, loss of good memory, close-mindedness and even bad attitudes. The opposite can result in anything, from thriving businesses to rekindling talents.

We all want to think like kids again, spew out ideas twenty times a day and venture new things with the ultimate enthusiasm. This wont happen if you dont allow yourself to nurture it. We forget the capabilities of the human brain and usually end up stagnating it. Most often we become stuck in ruts, because we’re too afraid to think outside our comfort zones. Its all too much for our well refined brain with four corners..

So dont feel guilty messing around with the kids and their paint splashing.
While you’re at it, waste some time doing crosswords and practice writing with your non-dominant hand, even if it takes up half the day... and starting more sentences with the word “imagine” might take you to parts of your brain you never knew existed.

One day, your flight might surprise you...