Imagination is Real

Alison Gopnik“For human beings the really important evolutionary advantage is our ability to create new worlds.”

“In fact, I think now that the two abilities – finding the truth about the world and creating new worlds-are two sides of the same coins. Theories, in science or childhood, don’t just tell us what’s true – they tell us what’s possible, and they tell us how to get to those possibilities from where we are now. When children learn and when they pretend they use their knowledge of the world to create new possibilities. So do we whether we are doing science or writing novels. I don’t think anymore that Science and Fiction are just both Good Things that complement each other. I think they are, quite literally, the same thing.”

The World Question Center at Edge.org

Alison Gopnik
Psychologist, UC-Berkeley

Coauthor, The Scientist In the Crib

Capsule Coaching

 


 

I recently came across this email I sent to a client after an executive coaching conversation. It has broad applicability for leaders.

The key from today is: get very clear about and keep your attention on the future you are committed to and the values at your core. Develop the discipline to pause and assess each event and communication in light of your commitments. Take your next step in service to your future, not as a reaction based on automatic, unexamined assessments from your past. Learn your triggers (people exhibiting disrespect, for example, or lack of candor) and move them into the realm of choice instead of letting them run you.

People follow a leader who is pulled by a compelling future and is adept at using data from a variety of sources, even unfriendly ones. They are made uncomfortable by an authority who is the victim of events or who devotes his energy to repairing the past. Instead, use the precious present to set-up a fulfilling future.

Tony Mayo

 


 

Click to download as a printable Adobe .PDF file.

capsule_coaching

 


 

Are you sacrificing the real now for an imaginary future?

 


 

Three versions. One contemporary, the second hundreds of years old, and the third thousands. One colloquial, the other literary, the last allegorical. The same abiding wisdom.

 


 

One:

A boat docked in a tiny Mexican village. An American tourist complimented the Mexican fisherman on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took him to catch them.

“Not very long,” answered the Mexican.

“But then, why didn’t you stay out longer and catch more?” asked the American.

FishingThe Mexican explained that his small catch was sufficient to meet his needs and those of his family.

The American asked, “But what do you do with the rest of your time?”

“I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, and take a siesta with my wife. In the evenings, I go into the village to see my friends, have a few drinks, play the guitar, and sing a few songs. I have a full life.”

The American interrupted, “I have (more…)