Mike Rucker's Lifelog | The Live Life Love project

I have set a personal goal for 2011, and that is to post information for the peak performer every other week this year. I have immersed myself in information as an enthusiast of peak performance, so when WordPress challenged bloggers to post each week I thought it would make for a fulfilling challenge. Imagination and creativity are so important to peak performers I’ve decided to start there.

Using imagination and imagery allows us to prepare, rehearse, and perfect our future actions. This is a consistent pattern for  peak performers. As we get older in age, we unfortunately often get less imaginative. Imagination and creativity are also important aspects of brain plasticity, and maintaining these skills helps us sustain our cognitive reserve as we grow older allowing us to operate optimally late into life.

There are simple things we can do to maintain our imagination at any age. One exercise is to draw a peaceful landscape that does not exist in reality. The definition of “peaceful” is unique to each individual, so you have creative license to draw whatever you want as long as the environment is imagined (i.e. not drawn from memory).  The way we perceive and operate in the world is personal to our respective selves. The world as we know it is defined by our experiences and developing our creativity expands our capacity to understand the human experience!