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It's Play Time!
by Linda Larsen, CSP
© Copyright 2003

Do you remember when you were a little kid and you used to "make believe?" I don’t know what that looked like for you, but for me it was an absolutely magical journey to the most amazing places.

At 6 years old my best friend Debbie and I used to play "Lucy and Ethel" (from the I Love Lucy Show). We used to argue over who would get to be Lucy. I always thought I was the perfect Lucy.

I remember I pretended that my bicycle was a red Chevy. Debbie drove a blue Ford and after dinner we would drive our "cars" around the neighborhood. We would cruise along and wave at the neighbors. We’d stop at the pretend grocery store and buy make-believe food with Monopoly money. Then we’d go home and make a great dinner for our baby dolls. Of course our babies just loved every dish we made.

As 4 year olds we have exquisitely rich imaginations. And a large percentage of us (approximately 95%) are extremely creative. Ah, but guess what? As we get older we begin to shut down our ability to imagine, and unfortunately, our creativity shuts down as well. In fact, only about 4% of us test out highly creative at age 45.

I am convinced that if we would allow ourselves to play "what if" more often, if we would daydream and imagine and visualize on any kind of a regular basis, some really interesting things would begin to happen.

Let me tell you about one that just happened to me.

My husband John and I were invited to go to Maui about 3 weeks ago with some friends. After having just finished "the remodeling job that would never end," we knew that there was no money left in the budget for a trip to Hawaii. So we declined their request.

A few days later I got to thinking. What if I could still get air miles award tickets? Could I? I had tried to get tickets to Hawaii once before and was told that if I wanted award tickets, I should call 11 months in advance! Logic told me I shouldn’t even try.

Good thing I don’t have a close personal relationship with logic.

I called anyway. And after a few well placed conversations, I secured 2 first class free (that’s f-r-e-e) tickets. Well great. But what about the hotel and spending money?

It’s odd what happened next.

I was walking my dog a couple of days later, just sauntering along, daydreaming, if you will. I wasn’t trying to manifest any particular outcome or goal. I was just playing in my mental sandbox - and having a grand time. Here’s what was going on at the Larsen Playground:

I saw me, running up to John, waving a check and screaming, "Can you believe this? Money! Unexpected money! Isn’t this amazing?!" I saw him saying, "Wow! That’s fantastic! Let’s go to Maui!"

I got so excited I almost tripped over my own dog!

Two days later I received a refund check that I absolutely did not expect from the IRS. It was accompanied by a letter stating that I had overpaid my taxes last year in the amount of $3,450.

Whoa. Cool.

Look, I don’t know what, why, how and if. I just know that when I play with possibilities, great things happen – and it has been like that for my entire life. People say that I’m lucky. I’m not so sure about that. I believe it’s because, for whatever reason, I never wanted to stop playing and exercising my imagination.

Why not try this for yourself? Create your own personal Imagination Playground. Simply suspend your disbelief and let yourself imagine whatever in the world it is that you would like to do, have or be. Do it several times a day, every day. Keep on playing. Do it, if for no other reason, just because it feels good.

You never know who you might run into on your playground.

Hope to see you there!

Word count: 683

Tag line: Linda Larsen, CSP, helps individuals think strategically, communicate effectively, and celebrate success. She is an international keynote speaker, trial consultant and author of the book, True Power, and the best selling audio program, 12 Secrets to High Self-Esteem. She can be reached at www.lindalarsen.com or 941-927-4700.

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