The Practical Benefits Of Day-Dreaming

     The bass guitar and the saxophone are two instruments I desired to play in my teens, but never had the opportunity to learn. I did the next best thing - countless hours of imagining myself playing them. For my twentieth birthday, I bought myself a bass guitar and an amp. My knowledge of music acquired from playing the piano and an acoustic guitar helped me initially. Without any instruction, I managed to play well enough to be rostered on the church band. Every Sunday night, I pulled the leather strap around my shoulder and pretended to be the god of bass. This continued until one day, someone realized that I had no formal training, struggled with the fast songs and lacked variety. I went back to playing the keyboards.
     A scientific study on the plasticity of the brain proved what I always felt was right. There is power in imagination.
The study was carried out on two groups with similar fitness levels. One group was instructed to exercise a muscle group for two weeks, daily for twenty minutes. The other group was instructed to spend that time imagining the exercises. The results of the study were surprising. Both groups showed an increase in muscle growth. For the first week, the growth levels were the same. In week two, the group that exerted physical effort showed considerable gain, while the other group's gain had plateaued. The study proved that the brain can be tricked into believing that these muscles were being physically exerted. In essence, imagination has benefits. But, sustained growth is achieved when dedicated, hard work follows.

     I find it easy to relate that study to my days as a pseudo rock god. It came as no surprise to me that I could play the bass. My passion and the countless hours of imagining myself playing a bass gave me the impetus to kick start my career as a rockstar. That kick start had to be complimented by hard work, at least a decade of practice, for me to become an expert. That never happened.

     You can be all you imagine has become a popular catch cry. That song has a refrain to it that is often omitted. You can be all you imagine, if you work hard enough and stay committed. Outside influence, such as environment and childhood experiences also affect the outcome of your dreams.

     A basic equation to explain this theory:

Imagination + Lots of Hard Work = Your Dreams Come True
(Well... in a basic sort of way)

     The bass guitar and the saxophone have since lost their charm. I have matured in my taste for music. I'd like to play the trumpet. As you can imagine, I spend a lot of time dreaming playing to packed out audiences...