“Your imagination allows you the fabulous luxury of thinking from the end. There’s no stopping anyone who can think from the end. You create the means and surmount limitations in connection with your desires. In imagination, dwell on the end, fully confident that it’s there in the material world and that you can use the ingredients of the all-creative Source to make it tangible. … If imagination works for God, then surely it works for you, too. Through imagination, God imagines everything into reality. This is your new strategy as well.”
Thinking from the end. That’s what a good Product Manager does. It’s what a good parent should be doing. It’s what a smart investor does. Jesus and the author of Hebrews both talk about thinking from the end (John 14 & Hebrews 12). Living life with an imagination that allows you to imagine finishing the marathon, raising the child, finishing college, being with Jesus in a new place, surviving Christmas, losing the weight, paying off the debt, owning the pet store/book store/bar…whatever. 🙂
The very act of all of those things and the details that go into each can be overwhelming and discouraging. But if you use your creativity and imagination you can see the end. You can feel the health, freedom, well-being, peace, etc. as it all comes together to match your intention. We get so caught up in just surviving the day to day that we lose sight of the end. We stop living abundantly and concentrate on the abundant effort it takes to live.
I once had a mentor who often asked me “Leah, what’s your end game?” or “Are you playing a short-game here or do you have a long-game in mind?” (Note: He also spoke in Sports Metaphors a lot.) That resonates with me. Recently I think I’ve lost sight of the end game. I need to go back to my imagination and start setting some intention…and imagine my way into the things that I want.
What’s your end game??