Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world.
Albert Einstein - 1879 - 1955
Albert Einstein’s assertion that imagination is more important than knowledge wasn’t a throwaway line from a distracted genius. It was the core of how he saw the world, and how he changed it.
To Einstein, knowledge was what is. But imagination was what could be.
It’s what allowed a patent clerk with no lab, no credentials, and no funding to picture light bending, time stretching, and atoms splitting. years before anyone could measure them.
Einstein didn’t just think outside the box. He questioned why the box existed at all.
And yet, somewhere between childhood and the chaos of adulthood, most of us trade imagination for information. We stop picturing what’s possible, and start managing what’s probable. We stop creating and start coping.
Where across the course of your day today, could you consider where it might be that you identify where there is chaos in your life?
I had dinner with a friend last night, who assessed my life as chaotic.
When I asked them what they meant by that, they mentioned all the moving parts in my day-to-day activities.
After driving my friend home, I considered what they had said about chaos, and I have been curious enough to seek out the definition.
chaos :
a state of utter confusion or disorder; a total lack of organisation or order.
So while imagination can be more important than knowledge, as Einstein’s genius professed, imagination can be a double-edged sword.
The same mental force that lets us build futures, solve problems, and envision greatness can also construct false narratives, stir unnecessary fear, and keep us stuck in stories that were never true.
We don’t just imagine what could be; we imagine what might go wrong.
We imagine someone’s silence means rejection.
We imagine a missed opportunity means we’re falling behind.
We imagine that we’re too old, too late, too flawed to begin again.
We imagine that because someone has a lot going on, their life must be chaotic.
We fill in gaps with worst-case scenarios. We edit reality with assumptions. We animate ghosts from our past and cast them as villains in our present.
Imagination, when untrained, doesn’t just dream; it distorts.
This is why mastering your mind isn’t about silencing your imagination.
It’s about learning to guide it, to harness it in service of clarity, not chaos.
Where across the course of your day today, could you consider where it might be that you guide your imagination to your benefit, rather than your detriment?
Seneca said, “We suffer more in imagination than we do in reality”
And that’s where the 8 E’s of Equilibrium come in.
When your mind spins, your body often follows.
When your physiology is aligned, through movement, nourishment, stillness, learning, and expression, your imagination shifts from anxious to inspired.
Here’s the thing. Every reinvention, every breakthrough, every brave new chapter… starts in the mind before it lands in the world.
Where, across the course of your day today, could you consider where it might be that you view the benefits of an imaginative mind as a leadership tool, both personally and professionally?
Your next level doesn’t begin with strategy. It starts with imagination.
Here are 8 evidence-informed practices for reviving imaginative thinking :
1. Read Fiction (Especially Magical Realism, Allegory, or Myth)
Imagination loves metaphor. Fiction stretches the mind by making the impossible plausible.
Try this: Read Gabriel García Márquez, Neil Gaiman, or Clarissa Pinkola Estés.
Best for: Narrative flexibility, empathy, symbolic thinking.
2. Freewriting and Journaling with Creative Prompts
Writing without editing bypasses the inner critic and surfaces the subconscious.
Prompts to try:
If your fear had a face, what would it look like?
Describe a day in your life five years from now, using only sensory detail.
Best for: Self-expression, ideation, insight.
3. Improvisational Activities (Movement, Acting, Drawing)
Improv teaches you to respond, not plan, which is essential for spontaneous thought.
Try this: Join a beginner improv night, gesture-draw with your non-dominant hand, or go on a “silent sketch walk.”
Best for: Playfulness, spontaneity, flow state.
4. Creative Constraints
Paradoxically, rules can liberate creativity.
Try this:
Write a poem without using the letter “e.”
Design a product your 10-year-old self would love.
Best for: Lateral thinking, problem-solving, adaptability.
5. Guided Visualisation and Hypnagogic Practice
This twilight zone between wakefulness and sleep unlocks deep symbolism.
Try this: After breathwork, visualise a door in your mind. Let your mind roam as to what is behind it.
Best for: Abstract thinking, vision work, subconscious insight.
6. Role Reversal and Perspective Shifting
Step into someone else’s shoes, not just emotionally, but imaginatively.
Try this:
Rewrite a memory from someone else’s point of view.
Imagine how a child, elder, or animal might describe your day.
Best for: Empathy, storytelling, strategic foresight.
7. Playful Problem Solving
Turn a real-life obstacle into a game.
Try this: Set a 10-minute timer and brainstorm 20 ridiculous ways to solve a current challenge. Then notice which ones aren’t so ridiculous.
Best for: Innovation, optimism, strategic imagination.
8. Reconnect with Awe (Art, Nature, Mystery)
Exposure to beauty, especially that which you don’t fully understand, stirs the imaginative self.
Try this: Watch a sunset without your phone. Visit an art gallery alone. Stare at the stars and ask, “What if?”
Best for: Wonder, humility, inner expansion.
These aren’t childlike exercises. They’re adult strategies to reawaken the dormant parts of the brain that once built forts from blankets and made dragons out of dust.
Adult imagination is language-based. Rich stories with metaphors, paradoxes, and symbols reawaken dormant parts of the brain.
Children are encouraged to imagine what could be. Adults must permit themselves to imagine what still can be.
I was curiously annoyed that my friend thought my life was chaotic.
We run on multiple energy systems, and each one draws from a different well.
Between coaching calls, writing, training, speaking gigs, and building something that matters, I do move through a full spectrum of demands each day.
Chaos comes from the Greek khaos, meaning a vast chasm or void; a kind of formless confusion.
But that’s not how my days feel to me.
Yes, there are moving parts. But they’re not flailing in the wind. They’re moving with purpose. They’re pulling from different reserves.
To someone looking from the outside, with no knowledge of my calendar, my goings on may appear chaotic, but I take great joy from the fact that I get to shift from one state to another as the situation requires, because my energy systems don’t get overloaded, because of the systems I have in place.
I’ve learned (the hard way) that if you don’t know which part of you is being depleted, you won’t know how to recharge properly.
And that’s the real danger, not just exhaustion, but misdiagnosing it.
A gym session taxes your physical energy system.
Deep reading or decision-making taps your mental reserves.
Socialising, negotiating, and leading a meeting pull from your relational or emotional energy system.
Creative work: writing, visioning, problem-solving, demands spiritual or inspirational energy.
Even scrolling on your phone or watching the news on television can deplete your sensory energy, often without you noticing.
It’s not just how much energy you spend, it’s what kind.
That’s why imagination, when left unchecked, can work against us. Suppose you're constantly running a mental simulation of fear, failure, or rejection. In that case, it drains your mental, emotional, and even spiritual energy, without a single thing actually happening in the real world.
And words…
When Lao Tzu said:
“Watch your thoughts; they become words.
Watch your words; they become actions.
Watch your actions; they become habits.
Watch your habits; they become character.
Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.”
He was warning that the most minor internal shift, an imaginary thought, expressed as semantic confusion, can change the course of your life and even make a friend curiously annoyed.
While someone might imagine I’m spinning plates at a Mad Hatter’s tea party, every plate, every seat, every pour of the tea is there for a purpose as an iron in the fire.
My life isn’t chaotic. It’s calibrated. That’s the Power of the 8 E'S OF EQUILIBRIUM
While you’re thinking about that, think about this and have a Gr8 day!
Be well.
DL
“Imagination is the only weapon in the war against reality.”
Lewis Carroll - 1832 - 1898