Imagination

“There are no rules of architecture for a castle in the clouds.”

-Gilbert K. Chesterton

            At what point does any given person’s imagination reach its limit? Intrinsically, there is no limit. It’s impractical to place a cap on the distances our minds can take us to. Many people say “the sky’s the limit”, but I personally deem this to be short of the truth, for our ability to achieve our goals and the levels of our perseverance and determination stretch far beyond the atmosphere above us. As Chesterton states, there’s no regulations placed on a region that resides in a place that’s ajar for all dreams.There aren't blueprints for the ideas we conceive.

The dictionary definition of the word imagination: the act or power of forming a mental image of something not present to the senses or never before wholly perceived in reality.

This fundamentally denotes that mind's eye derives from each individual’s ability to conjure up a sort of vision, a vision that has not yet been entirely fashioned or exposed. The thoughts we develop serve as the foundations of our creations, opinions, beliefs, decisions we make, and lead to the conclusions we ultimately come to.

A notable part about imagination is that nobody lacks it, since it’s simply unfeasible to not be able to ‘imagine’ anything at all. Naturally, not everyone holds the same aptitude to consider certain things. Perceptibly, someone who had been blind all their life would have an entirely different perspective compared to that of a person who had most, if not some of their full vision. That visually impaired person wouldn’t have a basis of how their surroundings looks like, thereby separating what their imagination would be like from the person who could see; someone who knew what their surroundings looked like would in effect, involuntarily base all of their thoughts off of what they see in front of them. As our eyes are, in theory, windows for our minds to look out of, enlightening the thoughts we perceive.

What would this world be without the presence of imagination? Or more significantly, what would this world be if people hadn’t acted on the ideas they formulated from their imaginations? Critical inventions and innovations in this world, like the car or airplane, medical advancements, and technology in general, exhibit how a simple contemplation or idea can change how our world functions entirely.

We can’t lose our imagination, but sometimes we can unwillingly confine or mediate our ideas. Like a child, what we imagine can be utterly extraordinary, and often times unrealistic or we can envisage straightforward and cookie-cutter notions. Nevertheless, whichever may define ones vision, it’s not only vital to keep our imaginations alive, but to now and again subsist within them.

Moving On

"Oh yes, the past can hurt. But the way I see it, you can either run from it or learn from it."

-The Lion King

             

              There comes a time in everyone’s life where they must choose to move on, despite the pain and struggle that comes with doing so. As said from the wise Rafiki, in dealing with the past, we ‘can either run from it or learn from it’, because in most situations, we’re usually given the choice of averting or confronting our issues.

Avoiding our predicaments is unquestionably something we all go through. Why deal with something when it’s easier to just ignore it and not think about it? Of course, this may seem like the best solution to difficult circumstances, but it only serves as a temporary solution; whereas facing problems head-on would be better for any one person in the long run. Steering clear of a problem can be seen in all aspects of life; in school, many face the infamous dealings of procrastinating, in everyday life, people avoid things like that of coping with loss, or a breakup, financial issues, medical conditions, the list goes on. Bottom line is that we all evade at least one thing in our lives, and whether we choose to brazen out our predicaments can often determine our inner strength.

Running away from my past is something that I’m undeniably guilty of. There’s been certain points in my life that I’d much rather forget and not cope with, mainly because the pain of just living with past issues seems less upsetting than the pain that would come with confronting them. As childish as it may be, it’s an eminent way of dealing with problems among everyone. Locking away tribulations in an air-tight vault and pushing it to the farthest depths of my mind is something I’ve fell victim to doing a number of times. But for how long will that crypt remain veiled? Sometimes it’ll stay hidden for days, weeks, months, or even years, but no matter how lengthy its dormancy may be, it will in due course divulge itself.

The past will always appear in our present, in one way or another; it affects our future, therefore we must learn from our past, in order to make do with our future. As painful as past happenings may be, we all encompass the potency to overcome and learn from them. We must take preceding pain as a means of pushing us forward, for suppressing our pain will only dig an even deeper hole of built-up misery within us. So how can we surmount our past? By facing it, moving on, and being content with still somewhat keeping it in the conscious part of our minds.

Success

“The greatest barrier to success is the fear of failure.” 

-Sven Goran Eriksson

            I have heard many people say that the only person keeping us from achieving what we want is ourselves. This idea is accurate, to say the very least, for everyone is their own harshest critic. We’re all hard on ourselves, we’re always judging whatever we accomplish, thinking about what we could’ve done differently, second- guessing our decisions, and never really being completely satisfied with our outcome. Everyone fears or has feared the possibility of failure in their life, because it’s only natural for us to doubt ourselves.

The fear of making a mistake can essentially hinder our pursuit of success. It’s something that keeps us from taking risks and putting ourselves out there, something that places a padlock on even the brightest of ideas; those who think that the possibility of failure outweighs the likelihood for triumph prevents them from riding on the chance of a positive outcome.

Some, more than others, can be exceptionally harsh on themselves. With whatever work I complete or goal I achieve, I can’t help but feel like I didn’t do my best, or that I could’ve done better. I always find myself doubting and heavily condemning my abilities, whether it is in school, art, or even the most minor tasks. In all honesty, I don’t think I’ve ever been entirely content with anything I’ve done. I suppose this type of uncertainty derives from my desire to make everything that I craft nearly perfect and with as little of errors as possible. Minor OCD? Perhaps. It’s sometimes difficult to be completely pleased with our creations; with things that we generate purely from our own imaginations and ideas can form a sense of vulnerability that we don’t always have the courage to reveal. All of us encompass the fear of being rejected or not being good enough, which are predominant sentiments that tamper with the level of self-confidence we have in ourselves.

 

But how can we know success without knowing the true definition of failure? Failure is a necessity in the process of attaining any victory. We must face failure at some point, in order to know what it is we must do to achieve all that we can. How else would we develop the knowledge in overcoming failure, without actually failing? Sometimes, we have to be pushed beyond our projected limits, so that when we pick ourselves back up, we can rise to our utmost stature.

Experience

"Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment."

-Fred Brooks

Since we are all mere human beings, it is inevitable for us to make mistakes. What we take away from our errors, however, is that which matters and shapes each of us. The mistakes we make can serve as ways to improve, and to learn the definite difference between what is characteristically ‘right’ and ‘wrong’. Given any typical fault, such as a child stealing something, expectantly teaches the child that theft is essentially wrong. Simplistic life lessons like these serve as the ideal suggestion of Brooks’ quote; one commits an error, learns from it, and then hopefully doesn’t make that same mistake for a second time. We all, in essence, know what is acceptable and improper in society. Of course, everyone has their own slip-ups every now and then, and once aware of our faults, we can benefit from it by choosing not to make the same errors.

However, the question that should be asked is, even when we’re conscious of doing something that’s ‘wrong’, do we still choose not to do it? The answer is flatly no. It’s not unusual to hear that someone chose to do something that they knew wasn’t the best choice. This is factual for every one of any age, infants, teenagers, and even the most morally sound adults have all, at least once in their life, chosen to go through with a scenario that they knew was wide of the mark. The choice to defy the generally accepted behavior and choices of any culture is typically seen in young adults, in dealing with drugs, school, and family, which often times can be blamed for the general stretch of time where young adults are finding themselves. This search, for who they are, individuality, and what they can and will become is prone to initiate a number of bad calls on judgment, thereby constructing the ‘experience’ of choosing to make a consequential decision. The sheer experience of anything is something we all search for in life, the desire for the archetypal occurrences we see in the media, movies, our society, all fabricate that burning, unavoidable curiosity that can lead us to those ‘experiences’ we call life lessons and memories.

This transitive idea that suitable judges of character come from familiarity and that familiarity comes from making an improper choice, thus saying that good judgment comes from bad judgment is, for the most part, accurate. We don’t need to make bad decisions before we know what good decisions are. And just because one may have ‘good’ judgment, it most certainly doesn’t denote that they will use it to make good choices; it simply means that they are conscious of what is ethically sound.

And that is exactly what separates people into those who don’t know what’s right and do something wrong, and those who do know what’s right and still choose to do what’s wrong. The ability to use experiences as a means of generating improved judgment varies for each individual, though it outlines and defines each one of us into the inescapably flawed entities we are.