You’re Not “Uncreative” — Here’s How to Train Your Imagination

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**Paris Hilton** (0:30)
Hey babes, it's Paris Hilton. So I was checking my points balance in the Hilton honors app the other day. And yeah, I've got about a billion, which feels excessive even for me. Just kidding. You can never have too many Hilton honors points. And I want to do something iconic this summer. So I'm giving away all my Paris points. Just find somewhere you've always wanted to stay, then go to my socials or Hilton's and tell me about it. Just make sure you're a Hilton honors member and I might be getting you Paris points because when you want points that make your summer even hotter, it matters where you stay.

**Mike Parsons** (1:04)
Hello and welcome to The Moonshots Podcast. It's episode 293 I'm your co-host, Mike Parsons. And as always, I'm joined by the man himself, Mr. Mark Pearson-Freeland. Good morning, Mark.

**Mark Pearson-Freeland** (1:17)
Hey, good morning, Mike, and good morning, listeners. Good morning, viewers. Good morning, podcast enthusiasts. Good morning, book lovers, and good morning, Moonshots members. Guys, thank you so much for tuning in for episode 293

**Mike Parsons** (1:30)
That is a whole lot of episodes. And so things don't get stale, Mark. I feel like we need to bring a bit of creativity.

**Mark Pearson-Freeland** (1:39)
That's right. We have gone over the mountains of productivity and handling distractions, Mike. We've started a brand new series on creativity. But I've got an interesting proposition to hit you and the listeners with today.

**Mike Parsons** (1:57)
Hit away.

**Mark Pearson-Freeland** (1:57)
What if imagination isn't imagination being the ability to come up with crazy new ideas for businesses, for stories, for epic tales like Homer's Odyssey? What if all of that imagination wasn't actually a talent that people are born with, but it's a muscle that you can deliberately train? That's going to be the topic of today's show.
Alan reads The Imagination Muscle, which proves that it isn't just an innate gift. It's something that we can really see, Mike, as a skill, a skill that any of us can work on and improve. How exciting does that sound?

**Mike Parsons** (2:34)
It is, but it's also a little bit overwhelming. Another thing to work on, Mark.

**Mark Pearson-Freeland** (2:38)
Yeah, you're right. It's not the first time that we've heard this proposition, is it? You know, happiness is a muscle that we can work on. Focus. Obviously, we've got fitness and general health, diet, all these things, Mike. Oh, and conversations. Don't forget. Yes. All of these things.
I'm pretty worn out, I think.

**Mike Parsons** (3:00)
So my love of this book and the clips that you've put together show us that actually we don't have to hope and cross our fingers that lightning's going to strike and we're going to have a creative or an imaginative idea. And I think particularly in our Rick Rubin show, we started to see a sort of mindset and a process to bringing more creativity into our everyday. But this book, this book by Albert Read, really takes it to a whole new level. So if you want to be imaginative, creative or just think better, this is the show for you.

**Mark Pearson-Freeland** (3:37)
Yep. Couldn't have said better myself, Mike. You've already explored a number of creative voices within the show.
Sorry, within the podcast on the show before. So I'm sure those eagerly viewers and listeners of ours will already be making connections between some of the powerhouses that we've had in the past as well as today's topic. And obviously we can explore that a little bit more in the show.

**Mike Parsons** (3:59)
Absolutely. So with this in mind, you've gone and found the very best thinking from Albert and his whole thinking around the imagination muscle. Where are you going to start us on this adventure?

**Mark Pearson-Freeland** (4:12)
Well, this is a pretty good adventure and it's a bit of a long one, perhaps, because I know that we like to get into the weeds of coming up with cool ways that we can inject some of this thinking into our own lives. But before we get too excited, Mike, before we take our listeners down the path, the rabbit hole perhaps of our own inner brains, let's hear from Albert kick us off with a breakdown on ideas, a breakdown on the imagination, as well as maybe a little bit of inspiration from some of those big hitters that we all know and love in our lives, and we just want to emulate a little bit more.