Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last y... — George Bernard Shaw

Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last you create what you will.

Author: George Bernard Shaw

Insight: We tend to treat imagination as a luxury—something artists and dreamers do in their spare time. But Shaw is describing it as the first domino in any real achievement. Before you can build anything, you have to see it first, even if it's just in your mind's eye. The gap between "wouldn't it be nice if" and actually making something happen starts with taking your vague wanting seriously enough to picture it clearly. The tricky part is that willpower alone won't bridge that gap. You can white-knuckle your way through discipline, but if you haven't actually imagined what you're reaching for in detail, you'll burn out or drift sideways. This is why daydreaming isn't wasted time—it's where you test-drive possibilities. When you imagine something vividly enough, it starts to feel real, which makes the next step (willing it into action) feel less like forcing yourself and more like following through on something you genuinely want. The catch Shaw doesn't mention is that imagination can also trap you if it stays in your head forever. The chain only works if you actually move from imagining to doing. But that's the point—none of the doing happens without starting there.

Source: The Collected Plays (Illustrated): 60 plays including Caesar and Cleopatra, Pygmalion, Saint Joan, The Apple Cart, Cymbeline, Androcles And The Lion, The Man Of Destiny, The Inca Of Perusalem and Macbeth Skit, p.2919, 2015