Issue 57: Imagination with James Baldwin

Each week we deliver a prompt designed to develop one of your primal powers.

This week's power is Imagination.

 

Curious which primal power can help you the most? Take our diagnostic.

So begins James Baldwin's semi-autobiographical novel, Go Tell it on the Mountain.  

 

Your prompt is to imagine two more sentences. 

 

First, what sentence would you write next? How would you lead us further into your version of the story?

 

Second, what sentence might come before this opening line? 

 

The goal isn't to guess what Baldwin wrote, but for you to imagine the start of a different story. 

 

If you like what you write, please share at the link below. 

It sharpens your imagination, which is your brain's ability to invent new plans, to

improvise effectively and to create strategy.

 

Developing imagination can boost innovation, resilience, decision-making, and leadership.

Last month's prompt was the first line from Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. 

 

Here are two fantastic reader responses, chosen at random:

 

"We wanted an excuse to not go to work. We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold. The smell of curry was our cardinal direction." — Nick from Columbus.

 

 

“I can’t be sure what it was that she poured into my drink, but it was the entire contents of the little little silver bottle that she discretely slipped back into her bougainvillea Hermés handbag. We were somewhere around Barstow when the drugs began to take hold. I first noticed it as something emerged from the night and darted across the road—my right leg didn’t move when i tried to hit the breaks. Her eyes widened and she smiled.” — Chris from Columbus.

 

(Chris writes Mid-Week Inspiration, a pithy, wonder-generating newsletter we look forward to receiving each Wednesday. Here's a past issue to give you a feel.)

 

Thank you to all who shared your work! 

 

Missed an issue? They're available in our archive.

 

Next week, Emotion.

 

In the meantime, you can hear Angus and one of his favorite colleagues, Dr. Preston Cline, discuss "productive discomfort" and honesty in personal and professional growth on Teamcast, The Mission Critical Team Institute Podcast.