A common theme among self-help teachings and new age spiritual ideas, such as "The Secret," is that you have the power within you to make your "dreams" come true by focusing your mental energy, your "intent," on them. Then, they will come to you. But some new research claims that doing so can actually make you less likely to achieve what you wish for.
The research says that fantasizing about achieving goals makes you less likely to achieve them because it drains the energy you need to pursue them. I think the research is as flawed and distorted as "The Secret" and similar teachings, but for very different reasons. Let's take a look.
This study, from New York University's Motivation Lab, found that "positive fantasies" predict poor achievement because they don't generate the energy to pursue the desired future. That is, if you create idealized images of future outcomes, your fantasized ambitions are less likely to become reality. That's because positive fantasies are de-energizing.
The research contains so many confused ideas and faulty assumptions that it's hard to know where to begin. But it does, indirectly, open a door to understanding some important elements for turning your goals into reality.
Ironically, the popular idea it's based on -- that visualizing your goals with enough "intent" will make them happen -- is itself a twisted and misunderstood version of an ancient spiritual perspective. But this new research also confuses a "positive fantasy" with visualizing a goal or objective. They are different. And the research also misunderstands what you need to turn a vision into a reality.
The research was done using college students (that's typical, for academic research, which is then extrapolated to people of all life stages and all post-21 experiences, but that's another story). Researchers examined the effect of experimentally induced "positive fantasies" about the future in four different studies.
For example:
The researchers decided to induce these "positive fantasies" because they assumed that those are the most desirable things one would want to achieve. Note that they're actually acquisitions, or accolades for looking good, or getting recognition for oneself. I don't see any "positive fantasies" such as, say, creating a new, useful iPhone app or having created a service to feed malnourished children. But more about that later.
The researchers measured the effect of positive fantasies upon systolic blood pressure. They had decided that would be a good measure of "low energy," that "low energy" would indicate that positive fantasies translate into poor achievement.
That is, the assumption was that people's "energy," defined by this measure, decreased as the participants engaged in positive fantasies, compared with another group who looked upon the fantasies with more skepticism. The latter group included women who were asked to fantasize more critically about the pros and cons of wearing trendy, high-heeled shoes, people who were asked to fantasize more negatively about their prospects for winning the essay contest and those who were asked to just daydream about the coming week rather than fantasize about a hot date or getting "As."
In short, researchers concluded that positive fantasies result in less energy than fantasies that question the desired future. That is, that positive fantasies will drain the energy you need for doing the work that will make them achievable.
What you can draw from this study is grossly misleading, at best. And that applies to its definition of desirable goals -- what it means by a "positive fantasy" and its assumption about what really helps achieve your goals or objectives. But through its flaws it illuminates some important things that are helpful to know about how you can, in fact, increase the possibility of achieving a desired dream.
Fantasizing vs. Envisioning -- There's a big difference. A fantasy is more like a wish or ungrounded notion of something you hope for or idealize acquiring. It's usually thought of in terms of the end result. That's closer to a daydream, and, interestingly, the researchers instructed people in a control group to just daydream about anything at all rather than, for example, getting all "As."
Creating a vision, however, is a more specific and developed formulation. It's more of a picture of something that you can envision pulling you toward, like from a magnet or rubber band. You experience it as a process, steps along the way that you move through, in order to turn it into reality. A fantasy is likely to just linger, hover in the air and go nowhere. You work at a vision, because it pulls you along a path -- from its beginnings in a thought, a wish (or fantasy), toward more fleshing out of what it could look like, toward steps that require your mental, creative, emotional and strategic powers to bring it into fruition.
What Goals Are Desirable Ones? -- The goals in this study were all self-serving, self-centered ones -- "getting" for oneself to consume or to glorify the ego. Such goals are, in fact, less likely to generate positive outcome, whether in personal life or at work. The most creative, positive accomplishments and achievements result from leaning to "forget yourself," in the sense of putting your energies into something larger than just your own ego-gratification. I've described this in some previous posts about what supports finding a fulfilling life purpose, and what enables people to evolve in healthy, productive ways in their lifetime.
Examples of the contrast between purely ego-related, self-absorbed goals and a larger vision would include the difference between a goal to create a great new product or service, rather than trying to capture a big market share from the product. Or building a solid, mutually loving relationship with a partner, rather than wanting to "have" a girlfriend or boyfriend to show off or have readily-available sex with. Too much self-interest tends to undermine success in life. That's been observed in the business world by looking at the goals of those who proved to be most successful: They achieved business and career goals by pursuing them indirectly, by deliberately not pursuing them. In relationships, the same principle is visible among those whose aims are not so much to "acquire" a new partner, but who wants to experience pleasure and enjoyment in relationships, and then find that one may grow and develop over time.
What Does It Take To Get There? -- The assumption that lower systolic blood pressure means you don't have enough "energy" to achieve your goals is very mixed-up thinking. It confuses lower motivation associated with residing in a wish-fulfilling, ego-serving fantasy -- and which may correlate with lower blood pressure -- with the ingredients for energizing the cognitive and emotional capacities you need for achieving a goal or objective that you've visualized, not just fantasized about.
That is, an internal state of calm -- associated with lower blood pressure -- can underlie both wishful thinking and having a clear focus on and determination to achieve your visualized goal or objective. Much research supports this. For example, a large number of studies of the impact of meditation upon the brain and behavior show that internal calm, centeredness, focusing and mindful attention enhance both your cognitive powers and the strategic actions you need to undertake to bring your vision into reality.
The upshot: Know the difference between idealized fantasies that go nowhere and a vision of possibility that activates your powers and your actions. Pursue goals that have worthwhile impact on something more than just your own narrow self-interest. And realize that internal focus, mindfulness and physiological calm activate the right kind of energy for making your vision possible. And that's no "Secret."
Douglas LaBier, Ph.D., a business psychologist and psychotherapist, is Director of the Center for Progressive Development in Washington, D.C. You may contact him at dlabier@CenterProgressive.org.
Follow Douglas LaBier on Twitter: www.twitter.com/douglaslabier
Frank Niles, Ph.D.: How to Use Visualization to Achieve Your Goals
Kala Ambrose: 6 Steps to Daydreaming Your Goals into Reality
Jeff Gitterman: Setting Goals: The Power of Visualization to Create the Life You Want
Srinivasan Pillay: Why Does Visualization Not Work For You?
Nope, Visualizing Your Goals Doesn't Help You Reach Them | BNET
Visualization: You're Doing It Wrong | PickTheBrain | Motivation ...
We should remember to practice the use of the power of our minds! ;)
Thanks for sharing!!
Most people only live the thought... as if the thought is the real deal. The thought seems real to the mind so many don't create the goal in the physical world. They have already lived it in the mind and fail to see the difference.
It's like a Tiger in a movie and you jump - the virtual tiger is like the virtual goal - and in many this illusion is all they settle for as it seems just like reality - yet it is not.
Most people live in this illusion their whole life and never wake up inside to see the difference.
1) While piloting a plane
2) While driving any motor vehicle
3) While operating any kind of machinery, heavy or otherwise
4) While performing surgery
5) While walking down the street
6) While delivering a speech or lecture
7) While defusing a bomb
8) While tightrope walking
9) While inseminating a cow
10) While felling a tree
11) While walking the steel beam during construction of a highrise building
12) While giving CPR
I am sure there are others....
First of all, comparing the "The Secret" to anything tangible, logical or practical is a waste of time. You might as well discuss the merits of lucky charms.
Secondly, in order to pursue something you MUST get excited about it. That means envisioning the good that will come of it.
I think what is really the case here is the fact that some people are either lazy, stupid or untalented and they're the ones who remain in a constant state of "daydreaming."
In other words, it isn't the daydreaming that cause the lack of success, it's the lack of success that causes the daydreaming.
Being futures-oriented can lead to detachment from the present. Modernity is future-oriented: it is goal-based, driven by objectives, shaped by plans. Science (experimental method), technology (how to), business (sales) and industry (making stuff) are focused upon outcomes.
To achieve a long-term goal, we should indeed formulate plans. But then we must shift focus from the long-term to the immediate. The plan must have stages. We must identify the first stage which takes place NOW.
Theweakness of Future-Oriented Modernity is that it alienates us from the present.
In the Post-Modern there is a clear tendency to acknolwedge that only the present exists. Thus the chaos of much Post-modern thinking which has become detached from longer-term goals.
We need a balance between the two.
Future-orientation to know what we want.
Present orientation to know what to do now.
And, of course, Past Orientation to know what we have, what we know and where we are.
Getting the balance is the key.
American culture in all its aspects has been far too devoted to the future, to goals, objectives, dreams and fantasies. That era of Modenity is closing.
Maybe fantacies are for generating endorphins or other hormones that reduce blood pressure and de-energize motivation.
Perhaps it was merely envisioned?
It's not the destination - it's the journery.
I have found that if I visualize a goal, I must also put forth effort to achieve that goal. It's a combination of visualization and action.
If I want to reach a goal in my job, I find that the actions I put forth, along with the visualization of that goal, most often results in achieving that goal. Sometimes I don't know exactly why I do a certain thing, but then I discover that it helped me meet my goals. It's like the energy in the universe can be directed by visualization and it guides your actions.
I have visualized material things years before they manifested; but in looking back, I know that without exerting the mental and physical effort that goes into everyday life, those material things would not have simply materialized.
What's the old saying? Success is 90 % perspiration and 10% inspiration? I find visualizing helps to make it more of a 60/40 proposition!