First, You Imagine It

Imagine. Build. Live.

I've been thinking a lot this week about how I use my mind.

Or maybe a better way to say it is how much time I spend thinking about things that don't necessarily need more thought.

I can take a conversation, a situation, or something that hasn't gone the way I expected and spend a surprising amount of time trying to figure it out.

What happened? What does it mean? What should I do differently? What happens next?

And sometimes, even when things are going well, I can find myself doing the same thing.

It's a habit I've been paying more attention to lately.

Over the past couple of weeks, I've written about learning that not everything is mine to carry, and then about making room for what matters.

This week, I'm realizing there's another part to that.

Once I've made room, what am I actually giving that space to?

Because I can clear something off my schedule, put down a responsibility, or decide to stop worrying about something, and still spend the next few hours thinking about it.

I haven't really made room if my mind is still occupied by the same things.

So I've been thinking about getting back to something that has been important to me for a long time.

My imagination.

Imagine.

One of the books I return to regularly is Neville Goddard's Out of This World.

I've read it and listened to it more times than I can count.

A big part of Neville's teaching is the idea that imagination plays a role in creating our experience of life. That we can begin to experience a desired future inwardly before it becomes something we see around us.

I've practiced that for years, and I can look back at quite a few things in my life that I believe began with an idea, an image, or a feeling about what I wanted to experience.

But I've also noticed something about myself.

The same mind I use to imagine a life I want can spend an incredible amount of energy replaying things I don't want.

I can visualize a future I'm excited about, or I can spend that time mentally revisiting something that frustrated me yesterday.

And lately, I've been giving more attention to the second one than I'd like.

So I'm making a change.

Less time consuming other people's opinions about how I should understand my life.

Less time trying to figure out every interaction or anticipate every possible outcome.

More time reading, sitting quietly, meditating, praying, and allowing myself to imagine.

And that's something I want to be intentional about. Not every quiet moment needs to become an opportunity to solve another problem.

Sometimes I just want to sit with the idea of what I want my life to look and feel like.

Not worry about how I'm going to get there or what might go wrong along the way.

Just imagine.

Build.

Imagination has always been closely connected to the work I do.

My background is in engineering and building products. I enjoy taking an idea that exists in someone's head and turning it into something that actually works.

Sometimes that's software. Sometimes it's a business, a process, or a system that makes life easier.

This week, I've spent time bringing together work I've done over the years, publishing case studies, updating my portfolio, and making more of what I've built visible.

I've also continued working on RoomFor and RoomFor Studio.

RoomFor grew out of wanting a better way to make sense of everything going on in my life, decide what matters, and make realistic commitments to myself.

RoomFor Studio grew out of my interest in capturing ideas and experiences and turning them into things worth sharing.

Different products, but there's a connection.

They both started with imagining something I wished existed.

Then I started building.

And one thing that's really exciting to me right now is how AI is changing what's possible for people who want to build something.

The distance between imagining an idea and being able to do something with it is getting smaller.

You don't necessarily have to know how to write code, design an application, or produce a piece of music to start bringing an idea to life.

There's still work involved. You still have to make decisions, figure things out, and put in the effort to turn something into a finished product.

But the opportunity to take something from your imagination and begin making it real is available to more people than ever.

And I love that.

Because I think there are a lot of people walking around with ideas they've never been able to do much with. Things they've imagined creating but didn't have the skills, resources, or time to pursue.

Now more of those people have an opportunity to try.

That's something I've done throughout my career, but I've been realizing that building applies to more than software.

The routines we create, the way we organize our days, the ways we show up for our families, and the environments we create around ourselves are all things we build.

And sometimes building isn't about doing more.

Sometimes it's deciding what not to build, what to simplify, or what no longer needs our attention.

I've certainly had to learn that one.

I have no shortage of ideas. I could probably spend the next few years building things I've already thought about without coming up with anything new.

But having an idea doesn't mean I need to do something with it right now.

Sometimes it's enough to imagine the possibility and let it sit for a while.

Live.

This is the part I've been giving more thought to lately.

Because I can imagine something and spend years building toward it, but what happens if I'm so focused on getting there that I'm not enjoying where I am?

One of the reasons I wanted to work for myself was to have more freedom over my time.

To be available for my family.

To create things that interest me.

To enjoy life without everything revolving around someone else's schedule.

And while there are still things I'm working toward, some of what I once imagined is already part of my everyday life.

I get to work from home.

I get to be there for Sage.

I get to spend my time creating and working on ideas that matter to me.

There are financial goals, projects, and changes I still want to make. Those are real, and they deserve my attention.

But I don't want to overlook the life that's happening while I'm working toward those things.

This coming week, I'm putting more structure around my days.

Getting up early, working out in the morning, protecting time for focused work, and making evenings a time to wind down.

I'm also bringing back a dedicated Sunday ritual to think about the week ahead, what matters, and what I realistically have room for.

And in my relationships, I'm working on allowing myself to enjoy what's good without feeling like every moment needs to be examined or understood.

I don't expect to get all of this right every day.

There will be mornings when I don't feel like working out, afternoons when I get distracted, and probably a few moments when I catch myself thinking about something I've already decided to stop thinking about.

That's fine.

I'm more interested in building a way of living that I can keep coming back to than trying to have a perfect week.

Imagine. Build. Live.

I've been looking for a way to bring together the different parts of my life and the things I want to share.

The technology, the businesses, the ideas I have about imagination and manifestation, my family, and the everyday experience of trying to live more intentionally.

For a while, I've treated those as different subjects.

But I'm starting to see them as different expressions of the same thing.

Imagine. Build. Live.

Imagine what you want to experience.

Build the things that help make it possible.

And live the life you're creating, even while it's still taking shape.

I like that this doesn't require everything to be finished.

I can imagine something new today, work on it tomorrow, and still enjoy the life I have right now.

And I think this is going to become a bigger part of what I share here.

I've even been thinking about making Imagine. Build. Live. the name of these letters, because it captures much of what I've been trying to bring together.

We'll see where that goes.

For now, I'm starting with giving my imagination a little more room.

Something to think about this week:

Where has your imagination been spending most of its time lately?

On the things you're worried about, the things you're trying to figure out, or the things you'd actually like to experience?

Maybe you don't need to figure everything out this week.

Maybe you just need to spend a little more time imagining what's possible.

A few things from my week

📖 What I'm reading: Out of This World by Neville Goddard

Yes, I'm still reading Neville.

If you've been following these letters, you've probably noticed that Out of This World comes up quite a bit.

It's one of those books I revisit regularly, and lately I've been spending more time thinking about his discussion of the fourth dimension and the third-dimensional world we experience.

Neville presents the idea that what we eventually experience in our physical world can first exist in imagination.

In his teaching, the fourth-dimensional world holds possibilities that haven't yet appeared in the three-dimensional world around us.

And through imagination and the feeling of already experiencing something, we can begin to move toward bringing that experience into our lives.

I think about that a lot when I look at things people have built.

A house was once something someone pictured before the first wall went up.

A piece of music was an idea before anyone heard it.

An application was someone's thought before it became something you could open on your phone.

In one way or another, so much of what surrounds us began with someone imagining something that wasn't there yet.

And I think that's one reason Neville's work has always resonated with me.

I spend so much of my time working on turning ideas into something tangible.

But before I can build something, I have to give myself permission to imagine it.

I've been reminding myself of that this week.

Not everything needs to begin with a plan, a task, or a list of things to do.

Sometimes I need to spend a little more time with the vision before I start figuring out how to make it happen.

📺 What I'm watching: The Traitors

We're still watching The Traitors.

Actually, at this point, I think we're watching about three seasons at the same time.

We're following the current season as new episodes come out each week, and then throughout the week we'll watch an episode or two from another season.

And Sage is still enjoying it with us.

It's become one of those shows we can put on together and have a good time trying to figure out who's lying, who's telling the truth, and who's about to get voted out.

I don't know how long we'll keep bouncing between seasons like this, but it's been fun.

No major life lesson from this one.

We're just enjoying the show.

🎵 What I'm listening to: My old Suno AI beats

This week I've been listening to some music I created with Suno AI.

I've been thinking about adding more of my own music to the videos and content I'm producing, so I started going back through some beats I'd made before.

I also spent some time creating a few new ones.

And I ended up revisiting an older song I'd worked on, including a verse I'd written.

It's been fun going back through that material.

Some of the beats are still pretty good, too.

What I like about it is the possibility of taking something I created a while ago and finding a new use for it now.

Maybe one of those tracks becomes the music behind a short video. Maybe I make something new specifically for a piece of content.

Either way, it's another creative outlet I've been enjoying.

And it fits pretty well with what I've been writing about this week.

I can hear something in my head, experiment with it, turn it into a piece of music, and eventually use it in something I share.

Imagine. Build. Live.

I hadn't really thought about my music in those terms before, but I guess the same process applies there, too.

That's what I've been thinking through and working on this week. If any of it connects with something you're experiencing, I'd love to hear about it.

Talk soon,

-JP

A couple of ways we can work together

1:1 Clarity Session

Have a decision, idea, project, or something in your life you've been carrying around longer than you need to?

We can spend an hour looking at it together, asking better questions, and getting clear on what comes next.

Explore a 1:1 Clarity Session

RoomFor + RoomFor Studio

I'm building RoomFor to help us capture our thoughts, reflect on our experiences, and make better use of what we're already doing.

RoomFor focuses on personal reflection and planning, while RoomFor Studio is growing into a creative workspace for turning everyday experiences, recordings, and ideas into useful content.

We're also exploring how the same tools can support community projects like the Garifuna Family Tree, helping preserve stories and family history for future generations.

Explore RoomFor

Know someone who might enjoy this letter?

Feel free to forward it to a friend, share a thought from it, or pass it along however you find helpful.

And if someone forwarded this to you, you can subscribe to my weekly letter here.

Thanks for reading.