A FutureMaker's Perspective on Imagination

by your FWX Team

FWX Alumna Loes Damhof always reminds us: The future does not exist, except in our imaginations - for when we get to the future, it will be the present. What this means is that:

  • There is not one future, there are multiple futures.

  • How we think and the stories we tell ourselves about the future influence our actions today.

  • The seeds of our future exist in our imagination. 

Unlike what many of us might think, imagination is not something that we are either born with or not. We all imagine and have the capacity to imagine.
 

As FutureMakers, one of our first and greatest tasks is to address the poverty of imagination, to democratize imagination and to continue to expand our capacity to imagine
- for ourselves, our work, our world. 
 

Our opportunity is to cultivate consciousness around our imagination and build capabilities that make imagination part of our daily practice. Building on work with experts on imagination and futurists, such as our own FutureWoman Regan Robinson, we share five challenges:

  1. Examine your assumptions and narratives: The core of imagination is exploring different aspects of, and relationships amongst, what we see and know. To do so, we need to first make them visible.

  2. Explore alternative realities, particularly "the things that make you go hmmmm":  When we see, read, experience things that do not fit into our models of 'what is', the door opens for the ultimate "what if" imagination question.

  3. Access your intuition and senses: Imagination does not live in the head, its roots are in our bodies. It is first about sensing, putting aside the need to immediately sense-make or assess.

  4. Wander & Wonder: It's no surprise that our brightest ideas come when we're in the shower. Imagination requires us to rest and digest, to play, to follow our curiosities.

  5. Share, share, share: Storytelling invites us to stretch further, add richness and weave disparate elements together, while enabling us to tap into collective imagination.

Now is the time to shift your relationship with imagination.
Where are you craving more imagination in your life?
What's the story you tell yourself that's holding you back from accessing it?
How are you going to protect the time and space needed to make true imagination a practice and a priority?

Victoria Foster