Quality Of A Genius: Imagination

by Robert L. Gisel



While it is the last of the 24 qualities that geniuses have in common imagination is very likely the most sought out characteristic and perhaps the most key one. Without it all the bright ideas leading to the renown inventions, even the not so well known ones, would never have happened. This also can be easily developed by any individual.

This is how this quality of a genius is characterized by Dr. Barios:

"24. IMAGINATION. Geniuses know how to think in new combinations, see things from a different perspective, than anyone else. Unclutter your mental environment to develop this type of imagination. Give yourself time each day to daydream, to fantasize, to drift into a dreamy inner life the way you did as a child."

While inspiration is a factor of imagination observation is a keynote of imagination. If you only make an effort to observe things and question them imagining new possibilities will result. Thomas Jefferson did this religiously looking out at the environment anywhere he went and constantly taking notes of what he saw. He regularly questioned whether there was a better way to do something. One result of this was his famous house he called Monticello which itself was a new direction in architecture but also contained some innovations he dreamed up. The dumbwaiter was an idea he had for bring wine up from the wine cellar and he devised an underground conveyor to transport honey pots to a dumping tank, to mention just a couple.

When Edison embarked on a new invention he started with the premise something might be able to be done then he started reading everything he could on the subject. He'd regularly go through scientific papers and even go see the works of scientists that were experimenting around the subject. Then he ran numerous tests to see results from many different materials and combinations. For this he kept shelves of every possible material in his laboratory. The fruits of his observations paid off in workable creations.

Looking at how things are done and observing how things work or the way machines are put together leads then to ideas of how to improve these and even entirely new creations. You first have to observe.

Whole magazines are devoted to showing what has been done in home improvements, gardens, decks or patios, landscaping and renovations. This is after all an observation process.

Mental agility can be a factor but this is not simply a trait one is born with, it takes development. You have to use the mind to have one. Reading many things and education in general are valid therapies to enhance the mind's functioning not to mention the well being these realize.

Just as one exercises to get more limber muscles one can exercise ones mind. You can exercise your mind by taking up something and just for fun see how many different ways you could configure it.

For example take the floor plan of your house. How many different variations can you think for laying out the rooms and changing the positions of doors and closets and the location of walls and rooms. Or you could walk down a street and observe businesses at random and imagine ways to improve their efficiency or changes that would be most ideal. How many ways could one toast bread, brew coffee or open a can? Regularly doing exercises like these would soon find yourself with more mental agility.

Memory can also be an area to address. The less accessable memory you have the less data you have with which to create new combinations. Imagination is taking known datums and palcing these in new combinations as well as to extrapolate previously unknown datums and new theories.

Here too you can develop this by games that test the memory and extend it. Just for fun remember all the houses you've lived in with colors of the walls or the styles of the windows. Or all the pets you've had or any like just for fun rememoring.The more you can remember the more you can visualize new combinations of objects and circumstances in the present.

There is even a book that works on recall in a self help forum. Self Analysis by L. Ron Hubbard has the techniques that you can use in your own home with amazing results in improving memory. This book puts it down to a science that has a high degree of workability in systematically enhancing memory.

I myself was one time stymied on what to with an addition to business entrance. after about a week of doing the processes from this book found I could now facilely imagine the addition rapidly a number of different ways. Thus you can see how improving memory improves imagination.

No one has a monopoly on imagination and anyone can improve their own simply by putting attention and effort to the task.

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