The Audacity of Imagination.
The Audacity of Imagination is perhaps best demonstrated by a child... Imagining what it would be like to stick a finger into a plug hole; Rolling down the stairs believing it would achieve the desired result because climbing is yet an unknown concept; Make believe narratives that warm the heart and those that would perhaps, change the world, one day.
The audacity of imagination is generally raw, untamed and fearless. It is best nurtured when ‘I’ in both imagination and audacity is encouraged and unleashed to work in synchronicity. It is a quality that must be fiercely protected from fear, speculation, ennui and pockets of mind numbing comfort zones.
The audacity of imagination is more inherent than fabricated. The being and concept of both can be cultivated but not manufactured. It is potent soil with the potential to harbour many an audacious feat but never, ever can it be restored to its purest power, once silenced or lost.
In a world of business as usual, the ask and need on every brief resonates thus…Every idea must be different from the other; Every solution must be award worthy; Every way must explore a better one;
Examples of ideas executed by others are often applauded, creatives with spunk are often set as benchmarks; More then often, the asks themselves lean towards re-imaging rather than reimagining, so much so, that the asks themselves seem to be lacking in the audacity of imagination.
As references are given, benchmarks are set and KRAs assigned, I wonder… Isn’t it ours to ask and do - building systems and corporations that create and sustain cultures to build a repertoire enriched by the audacity of imagination? A culture that consciously feeds an appetite to nurture leaps of incredible faith, innovation, experiments emanating from the audacity of imagination?
You may believe and I agree - the audacity of imagination is risky, anti-conformist and arguably expensive in currencies of time and money; But, I ask, is the cost higher than choosing to numb or dumb out one mind at a time, to create a collective of minds lacking the audacity of imagination?
I believe… It is never too late to ask boldly, lead boldly and most importantly embrace boldly the audacity of imagination, either one to one or one to many.
It is time to dig deeper, dialogue stronger and look inward to ask…Are we enabling whilst seeking the audacity of imagination across KRAs and expectations? Are we enabling the next-gen to truly live the audacity of imagination? Are we agreeing to the proportions of discomfort and discomfit that The audacity of imagination creates?
Imagine this… If each one of us chooses to nurture the audacity of imagination in another, we would be building an imagiNation, one audacious step at a time.
What if… No matter whatever the odds, we choose to be childlike in embracing and furthering the audacity of imagination because the magic of this synchronicity is best nurtured when allowed to exist, flourish and be enlivened, time after time.
Arguably, The Audacity of Imagination is fast becoming a lost treasure. A concept prone to possible extinction and it is up to you, me and us, to be audacious or not, before The Audacity of Imagination becomes a fiction of our imagination and our world an audacious less space.
SohiniBoseWrites. Thursday, 11 December, 2020. https://introword.blogspot.com/