Success! Why Expectations Beat Fantasies — PsyBlog
Are you building castles in the sky? Psychologists have found that fantasising about future success can be dangerous.We all have fantasies about the future. It’s only natural to dream happy dreams about how things might go right.
We often hear from self-help gurus that just this type of happy dreaming is a good source of motivation. If we can picture our future success then this will help motivate us.
Loosely speaking there is some truth to this: positive thinking about the future is broadly beneficial. But psychologists have found that visualization and fantasy can be tricky customers and research carried out by Oettingen and Mayer (2002) shows why.
Fantasy versus expectation
The researchers wanted to see how people cope with four different challenges that life throws at us: getting a job, finding a partner, doing well in an exam and undergoing surgery (hopefully not all at the same time).
Across four studies the researchers examined how people thought about each of these challenges. They measured how much they fantasised about a positive outcome and how much they expected a positive outcome.
The difference might sound relatively trivial, but it’s not. Expectations are based on past experiences. You expect to do well in an exam because you’ve done well in previous exams, you expect to meet another partner because you managed to meet your last partner, and so on.
Fantasies, though, involve imagining something you hope will happen in the future, but experiencing it right now. This turns out to be problematic.
The researchers found that when trying to get a job, find a partner, pass an exam or get through surgery, those who spent more time entertaining positive fantasies did worse.
Take those looking for a job. Those who spent more time dreaming about getting a job, performed worse. Two years after leaving college the dreamers:
- had applied for fewer job,
- unsurprisingly had been offered fewer jobs,
- and, if they were in work, had lower salaries.
On the other hand those who entertained more negative future fantasies were more likely to achieve their goals. Similar results were seen for the other goals.
Although positive fantasies were associated with failure, positive expectations were associated with success. People who had positive expectations about finding a partner, recovering quickly from surgery and passing an exam, did better than those whose expectations were negative.
Recall that expectations are built on solid foundations while positive fantasies are often built on thin air.
Why positive fantasies are dangerous
The problem with positive fantasies is that they allow us to anticipate success in the here and now. However they don’t alert us to the problems we are likely to face along the way and can leave us with less motivation—after all it feels like we’ve already reached our goal.
It’s one way in which our minds own brilliance lets us down. Because it’s so amazing at simulating our achievement of future events, it can actually undermine our attempts to achieve those goals in reality.
This isn’t to say that thinking positively about the future is problematic or that fantasy in itself is dangerous, just that a certain type of positive fantasy thinking is associated with poorer performance.
So that’s a warning about the dangers of visualization and fantasy in goal-achievement, onto more positive findings about motivation and success in future posts.
I expect.
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Published: 20 January 2011
An NLP way of looking at this (which adds a useful distinction, I think) is that fantasies are associated (“after all it feels like we’ve already reached our goal”), while expectations are dissociated.
Going “one louder”: what if you scale your life up to 11?
An article from my Coaching Leaders blog about treating your life like Nigel Tufnel’s amp!
How to do things better - the New Behaviour Generator
How to do things better - the New Behaviour Generator
Photo by wia-tirol at sxc.hu
Applications: this is a great NLP technique for being able to do something better, or finding new ways to handle challenging situations. It’s like positive mental rehearsal on steroids!NB. If you are already an NLP practitioner and you covered this on your practitioner training, compare this version of the process with the one you know. I’ve simplified it to its essentials.
1. Describe a behaviour you would like to be able to do, or how you would like to be able to do something better. Start from a belief and internal dialogue of ‘I can do this’.
2. Create a mental ‘movie’ in which you see yourself doing the new behaviour the way you want. Make sure the picture is big, bright and vivid. Add sound so that you see and hear yourself. Adjust the movie until you are satisfied with the new behaviour. (Extra tip: for most people, looking up and to your right as you do this will help. For a few people - usually if you’re left-handed - looking up and to your left will work better.)
3. Step into the ‘movie’ and check how this feels. Make any further adjustments you need to until you feel the way you want. (Extra tip: for most people, looking down towards your dominant hand will help you get in touch with what you are feeling).
4. Imagine seeing yourself use the new behaviour in 3 or more opportunities in the future to generalise the new ability out. Again, looking up will help you to visualise.
Some extra refinements:A) Use a role model: In steps 2 and 3 you can use a ‘role model’ who you know can do the desired behaviour well. Run a movie of that person performing the behaviour (Step 2) and then ‘become’ that person in Step 3. Then repeat Steps 2 and 3 with yourself in the movie, making any changes you need to.
B) Use resources from your past: if you have dealt with similar situations well in the past, see yourself doing that and then transfer that skill into the new situation.
C) ‘Chunk’ the behaviour down: if you need to, break the desired behaviour down into smaller steps and run through Steps 2 and 3 on each.
D) Use a timeline: lay a timeline out on the floor, from past to future. See yourself enjoying the results of the desired behaviour and place this goal on the timeline. Step into it, get the good feelings, and notice the steps and any new behaviours associated with them leading up to the successful achievement of this goal.
Step off the timeline and notice where each new behaviour step is on the timeline. Repeat Steps 2 and 3 for each new behaviour. Finally walk up the timeline from now, associating into each step, until you reach your goal. Store your goal and the new behaviours associated with it wherever feels right for you.
E) Create alternatives: at Step 2 ask your unconscious mind to create at least 3 options for new behaviours. Try out each and select the most appropriate.
Let me know how you get on!Note: as far as I know, the New Behaviour Generator was originally developed by Richard Bandler - although I could be mistaken.
Buzz Monday, November 8, 2010 at 1:53PM | via coachingleaders.squarespace.com
