Imagination is humanity’s greatest superpower. Thinking about the future is a unique gift that has powered progress for thousands of years.
Quite literally, we use our minds to create the future. Most people don’t realize that our brains don’t know the difference between experiencing something in real life and imagining it:
The pathways in the brain that we use to undertake an activity—for example, throwing a basketball into a hoop—are the same pathways used when we merely picture this activity. In both instances, the visual cortex—the part of the brain that sees—is activated. Because use of any circuit strengthens that circuit, rehearsing a performance in the imagination can prepare mental circuits in ways similar to the real performance. However, effective visualization must be correct, precise, and repeated.
Isn’t that incredible? We can picture something in our minds, and the benefits are the same as if we took that action in the real world.
If we dedicate time to it, we can have infinite “free passes” to practice feeling and experiencing something; a personal database of visualizations. Athletes and artists have used visualization to their advantage for decades. Jack Nicklaus once said, “I never hit a shot, even in practice, without having a very sharp, in-focus picture of it in my head. It’s like a color movie.”
These days, many people are compensated based on decision quality in uncertain and ever-changing environments where there are no winners or losers. This makes it more challenging to specifically identify how to practice your craft: is it writing? Is it reading? Is it documenting decisions?
This doesn’t mean visualization isn’t valuable. In an infinite game it’s even more important to dedicate time to creating your version of the most incredible movie in the world: the one you want to be in.
The paradox of progress creates anxiety over all our possible futures: there always seems to be another job to pursue, another direction to take. Picturing the successes (and problems) that are worth striving for strengthens the neural connections that prepare you to take action to help that exact future unfold.