How flexible, creative, immersive, emotionally provocative, and vivid is your future imagination? Take this fun ten-minute challenge to find out!
You’ll also learn how to use four quick inventories, or scientifically developed measurement tools, designed to help quantify and improve your foresight skills.
Instructions:
1. Take a mental time trip to a meal 10 years in the future. Imagine it: You're having a special meal, and you're not alone. Where are you? Who are you with? What's the occasion? What are you eating? What do you see around you? What do you hear, smell, taste, and feel? What emotions are you feeling? What words are spoken aloud? What else is unique or noteworthy about the scene? Capture in writing or a voice note as many specific details as you can. Take up to five minutes (but not more) to freely write or talk out loud about this imagined future meal.
2. Do a quick debrief and reflection: How different is this imagined scene from a meal you could have today? Take a moment or two to see if you can change any of the details to make it more clearly a meal from the future. If you'd like to fill your brain with a few clues, or signals of change, about food, try a quick internet news search for "future of food." If inspired, edit your writing to include one more new detail.
3. Now, try this exact same activity again — take a mental time trip to a meal 10 years in the future. You're having a special meal, and you're not alone. But this time when you imagine the scene, change as many details as you can. Imagine a different future location, different future people, a different future special occasion, different future food, different future sights and sounds, different future emotions. Capture this new scene in writing or with a voice note. (Don't delete the first one! We're going to compare them later in the exercise.) Spend up to five minutes (but not more than that) freely writing or talking out loud about everything you imagine.
4. Self-assess yourself on your mental experience of creating and imagining these two hypothetical futures, using the following measurement tools:
Tool #1: How vivid and detailed is your imagination?
Rate your response to the following questions on a scale of 1 to 7.
- Overall, how vivid was the first future scene you imagined?
(1 = it was very vague, 7 = it was extremely vivid.) - How clearly did you picture the imagined location or physical environment?
(1 = it was very vague, 7 = it was extremely clear in my mind.) - How clearly did you picture your physical self — and any possible changes to your body or what you look like — in this future?
(1 = it was very vague, 7 = it was extremely clear in my mind.) - How clearly did you picture other people and objects in the scene?
(1 = it was very vague, 7 = it was extremely clear in my mind.) - How many other sensory details, like sounds, smells, or physical sensations, did you imagine?
(1 = I imagined almost no details, 7 = I imagined many details.)
Add up your answers for a total vividness and detail score between 5 and 35. A higher score indicates a higher skill level at mental future imagination.
Tool #2: How absorbing and immersive is your imagination?
Rate your response to the following questions on a scale of 1 to 7.
- How much do you agree with the following statement? “When I imagined the first future scene, I had a feeling of pre-experiencing the event, like I was experiencing today what I might experience in the future.”
(1 = I don’t agree at all, 7 = I totally agree.) - How much do you agree with the following statement? “I was completely absorbed in the first scene I imagined. It was a very immersive experience.”
(1 = I don’t agree at all, 7 = I totally agree.)
Add up your answers for a total absorbing and immersive score between 2 and 14. A higher score indicates a higher skill level at immersive mental future imagination.
Tool #3: How emotionally provocative is your imagination?
Rate your response to the following question on a scale of 1 to 7.
- How strong an emotional reaction did you have in the present as you imagined this future scene? The emotions might be positive (excitement, hope, pride, joy, curiosity, relief, contentment, love, awe, etc.) or negative (anxiety, sadness, embarrassment, jealousy, disappointment, fear, loneliness, etc.) or a combination of both. In other words, how much did you “pre-feel,” in your mind and body today, the feelings you might have in this future?
(1 = I had almost no emotional reaction, 7 = I had an extremely powerful emotional reaction.)
Your score will be between 1 and 7. A higher score indicates a higher skill level at emotionally provocative mental future imagination.
Tool #4: How flexible and creative is your imagination?
Rate your response to the following questions on a scale of 1 to 7.
- How different would you say the second, reimagined scene is from the one you previously imagined?
(1 = the new scene is almost exactly the same, 7 = the new scene is almost entirely different.) - How realistic and plausible would you say this new, reimagined scene is? In other words, how believable is it to you that it could really happen?
(1 = it is extremely unbelievable, 7 = it is extremely believable.)
Add up your answers for a total score between 2 and 14. A higher score indicates a higher skill level at flexibility and creativity in mental future imagination.
Once you have your final score, reflect on what you discovered about your ability to imagine the future. Consider the ease or difficulty you had in stretching your imagination. If you weren’t happy with your ability, explore ways for how you might improve your imagination skills. Imagination is something we all learn, not an innate skill we’re born with, so we can always get better at it.
***Pro tip: There are two ways to complete this challenge: On your own, or with a partner.
If you’re doing it on your own, it's simple: Imagine two future meals, spending no more than 5 minutes on each, and then calculate your future imagination scores using the assessment tools below.
The other option is to do this challenge with a partner, taking turns leading each other through the activity and sharing your stories and signals of change about food with each other. This is a great option if you'd like some foresight facilitation practice! It’s also more fun to get to see the future from someone else’s point of view. If you’re feeling gameful, it can be fun to compare scores and share ideas for how to increase them. Try a quick collaboration: What details could you add to your imagined futures that would add to at least +1 your score on each measurement tool?
You can learn more about how these measurement tools were developed in “The Measurement of Episodic Foresight: A Systematic Review of Assessment Instruments,” by Beyon Miloyan and Kimberley A. McFarlane, published in Cortex 117 (August 2019): 351–70.
Interested in earning a certificate in Imagination Leadership? Join IFTF’s public membership program Urgent Optimists (access is $10/month) and complete four self-paced online courses, plus interactive events like our monthly Signals of Hope scavenger hunt, scenario club, and a social simulation. This foresight challenge is from the online course The Neuroscience of Future Imagination. The entire training program is free for Urgent Optimists members and available year-round. Join here and develop your creative foresight today!