Humankind is facing unprecedented revolutions, all our old stories are crumbling and no new story has so far emerged to replace them, Prof. Harari claims. I agree with him and I believe that the new story that wants to emerge is the result of our imagination and creativity.
You are probably thinking that betting on imagination isn't a responsible act especially now when the world is facing deep struggles and so many of us are being tested by a world which seems to have become un-human. In all honesty we have built it and, as we create it we can re-image it and re-create it in ways that are more human.
We have built who we are, our systems and processes on information and on ways to control the flow and exchange of information. Today, however, we are flooded by such an immense ocean of information, that even mis-information and fake news have become a currency. It is about time we use our human operating system to learn how to make sense of them.
How do we educate ourselves and children to make sense to the overly abundant information all around us and at the same time integrate and decode them according to our inner operating system? I believe it is through imagination.
It is primarily through the re-imagination and reinvention of ourselves and our inner worlds. I have attended, a couple of weeks ago, one of the workshops sponsored by The DO Lectures; my take on it is that to move forward into our own becoming human we need to learn about our human operating system and find ways to hack it, before somebody else does it on the march of turning humans into robots.
It is such a paradox we are living in: we built algorithms and any sort of “future telling” machines to predict and understand what humans do, think and feel, in order to sell and make more profits, and still refuse or resist to take authority and responsibility on our own understanding of ourselves.
If we could imagine and create a machine or a program that can do that why so stubbornly we refuse to imagine our own humanity differently? Why are we so prone in giving up our own power? Remember when you were a child, there were no limits to your own imagination and power to imagine and create any sort of thing.
Albert Einstein said: “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”
The education and scholar system convinced us instead that someone else or something else has the power to dictate and author our life. We started then to sacrifice imagination to the altar of responsibility. We started complying and conforming to what was requested of us.
Sir Ken Robinson said: “imagination is the source of every form of human achievement”.
Follow that imagination that resides within you and see where it leads you. Close your eyes and feel it.
I believe we have jeopardised imagination (and creativity) in the way we educate our children and ourselves. I have always found unsettling (and patronising) how some people assume that THEIR WAY must be the THE WAY for everyone else. I’ve worked so hard to re-discover and re-imagine myself that I wouldn't ever want to go back to what has always felt too small for my own growth and evolution.
Seth Godin would compliment this weird choice. In his book “We are all weird” he invites all of us to CHOOSE NOT to be and do what the masses have convinced us is right. Godin calls these people weird, I call them Freevolutioners. They choose everyday to re-imagine who they are, take a stand up against jobs they do not love, in order to buy objects marketers have convinced masses to buy in order to feel significance, ideas and opportunities they don’t need, so that they can sustain a lifestyle they do not believe in, so they can have the illusion to fit into circles they don’t even like or align with.
Freevolutioners imagine and create their lives aligning with their deepest desires not out of fear. They refuse to do life in this or that way, just because someone, somewhere believes that they are supposed to. They choose instead to be life re-imagined every day.
Why would you replace your own desires with someone else’s notions of life? How is that a good deal? It is probably because of finding comfort? That so called comfort-zone and stability has become the cage of your imagination and creativity.
If instead you have been questioned, ridiculed or shamed by the “Normal” as Godin calls them for not conforming YOUR WAY to “THE WAY” I’d love to know and hear from you. I am here to listen to your story of Freevolution.
If you’re ready to make a powerful choice and really imagine and live your life, then join me on the Freevolution journey. It’s designed to help you handle doubt, get unstuck, and live your creative life purpose. If you're unclear as to your next steps or too terrified to take them then you cannot afford to neglect the Freevolutioner in you. This is your chance to get a copy of Freevolution.
If you’re interested to learn more about our knowledge and experience and discuss how we could help through our consultancy, workshops, and talks, drop us a line at fateme@rnewb.com.