Paint beautiful paintings.

You may not know it, but God made you a painter. How? Every thought in your mind is a brushstroke in the canvass of your imagination.

And this is a magic canvas. Because what you imagine can become real. Your imagination is one of God’s most powerful gifts to you. It’s more powerful than your intellect and your emotions.

Imagination is one of the things that separates us from most animals. Many scientists believe that we’re the only species on planet earth that can paint a future-scenario in our minds.

Two Amazing Abilities That You Must Use

Actually, we have two God-given mental capacities: We can “paint our present” and we can “paint our future”. To succeed in life, we need both. Sadly, some people just use the first one…

1. Painting Your Present

A lot of people are locked in this one mental habit. They just paint their present. All they think about is what they see, what they hear, what they taste, what they smell, and what they feel. Their minds are imprisoned by their perceived reality.

If all you do is paint the present, you’re not imagining, you’re just describing. And this does not create hope. Truth: A lot of people are stuck in their career, in their finances, in their relationships, in their spiritual life because of this. Because every day, all they think and talk about is reality—and usually, the negative side of reality: what’s lacking, what’s hurting, and what’s failing in their “now”.

This is why many people are discouraged.

Painting your present is very important.

But you can’t live without hope.

You need to do the second kind of painting…

2. Painting Your Future

If human beings just painted their present, we’d all be cavemen to this day. Because every invention comes from hope. The Wright Brothers imagined the plane before they built the plane. Thomas Edison imagined the electric bulb before he invented the electric bulb. Steve Jobs imagined the iPhone before he built the iPhone. Mark Zuckerberg imagined Facebook before he built Facebook.

Do you want to win in life?

Start painting new worlds that have not yet been created.

Paint beautiful paintings.

Right now, a lot of the paintings in your mind are dark and ugly, because all you do is paint the present.

The Amazing Impact of Imagination

But some people may ask, “But isn’t imagination just useless daydreaming? Isn’t that just a waste of time and energy?”

Not really. Let me prove it to you…

Simple Imagination Improves Your Performance

You’ll be shocked by this example. Alan Richardson, an Australian psychologist, did a crazy experiment: He chose three groups of students at random, brought them to a basketball court and made them to do free throws.

He asked the first group to do free throws every day for 20 days.

He asked the second group to do free throws only on the first day and the 20th day—and do nothing from Day 2 to 19.

He then asked the third group to do something very unique: He asked them to do free throws on the first day and the 20th day—but from day 2 to Day 19, they were asked to visualize every single day. They were asked to imagine standing in court, feeling the leather ball in their hands, “hearing” the ball bounce on the wooden floor, and shooting it into the hoop.

After 20 days, Dr. Richardson measured their improvement.

The first group who practiced every day for 20 days improved by a massive 24%. That was expected. The second group who did nothing improved 0%. That was expected too. What was startling was the third group. They didn’t practice but simply visualized every day. They improved by 23%–just one point lower than the first group.

Crazy but true.

Here’s the big question: Imagination works in basketball; Can it also work in creating a fantastic future?

Absolutely.

I use my imagination to preach. Before I step on stage, I imagine myself preaching so powerfully, people’s lives are changed forever.

I use my imagination to plan for my future. Three years ago, I stepped down as over-all leader of Light of Jesus Family. Last year, I stepped down as leader for Feast Bay Area. I’m now just a leader for Mega-Manila. But in a few years, I’m stepping down from that too. Why? I’m imagining my second act—I’ll serve the poor again hands-on.

I meet people who don’t have second acts. They don’t see a future. Start using your imagination.

May your dreams come true,

Bo Sanchez