Learning to Imagine Out Loud

Here’s the thing: If we can’t imagine anything better than this, we can’t build anything better than this.

Whether it’s home, work, your place of worship, our social systems, or the world at large—the first step to making a place better is to imagine what that might look like. 

Problematically, many of us abandoned the use of our imagination somewhere around the 5th grade. It’s a muscle we don’t exercise because there’s very little value for imagination in a society obsessed with productivity, tasks, and infinite economic growth (a ridiculous idea we would immediately abandon if we had any imagination at all.)

But our failure to imagine a world that is more just, equitable, and sustainable is part of what makes us feel stuck. We get bogged down in “Is this really all there is?!” and it makes us irritable with our children, harsh with ourselves, and angry at the world for being simultaneously too much and not enough. 

The first step is imagining something better. Something better than a life so filled with meaningless tasks that we live with a low-simmering rage 24/7. Better than a capitalist system that thrives on inequality and devalues anyone who doesn’t directly contribute to economic growth. Better than unbridled climate change, mass extinction, and an ocean full of plastic. Better than white supremacy, hate crimes, and misogyny.

This kind of imagination is the core of most effective change-making efforts. They imagine something better out loud in a way that invites others along with them.

It’s worth mentioning that imagining out loud is very different from the nonconstructive criticism that’s so common these days. Shouting angry critiques at people (whether in person or on social media) is unhelpful and rarely moves anyone. Imagining out loud invites people to join in the process. To imagine with you. To step out of the quicksand of what is and into the wide-open spaces of what could be.

This kind of imagining doesn’t even have to be with words. You can imagine out loud with art, sports, music, movies, and cooking. You can use a classroom, meeting room, living room, or backyard bbq. You can use hiring practices, book clubs, fundraisers, corporate culture, grocery shopping habits, and apparel. Anything that moves you and the people around into a space of imagination and possibility.

My challenge to you today is to take a few moments to imagine a better world—one where we are all equal, safe, and thriving. Then find a way to express that—to live that out loud in a way that others can see it.