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I believe a common understanding of "visualizing goals" and the one the researchers are talking about are two different things. The purpose of visualizing goals
by aik 15y ago
I believe a common understanding of "visualizing goals" and the one the researchers are talking about are two different things. The purpose of visualizing goals is twofold:
1. Putting your mind on the job of completing the goal. Once this is done, the mind subconsciously spends time trying to figure out how to complete the goal.
2. Motivating oneself to complete a goal by energizing oneself (e.g. to endure working long hours at your startup, you visualize yourself succeeding through various efforts -- this in turn energizes you.)
The water glass and thirst example does not require either of these. 1. Getting a glass of water is not a complex task your mind has to spend time pondering, so why would it; 2. Special motivation techniques are not required to quench thirst -- thirst is always enough motivation since it satisfies a basic human need.
If instead you're seeking to accomplish a complex goal(e.g. endure working long hours at your startup), and something I don't believe their study is talking about, is the process of visualizing success to energize oneself.
Is this article arguing that visualization of goals in this latter case does not work? What's a good alternative? It's merely a method of motivating oneself in times of being unmotivated.
- jasonkostempski 15y agoThey're talking about visualizing success not goals. Like The Secret, where you pretend like you already completed your goal of killing 3 people in a sweat lodge and then it will happen for real.
- aik 15y agoGood point -- however my comment still stands for the most part. It depends on the purpose of you visualizing success. Visualizing yourself accomplishing something as simple as quenching thirst is completely missing the point IMHO (unless you believe in the magical "The Secret" silliness), per my previous argument. Visualizing yourself accomplishing greater things serves multiple purposes: 1. Energizes oneself in the current moment. 2. Opens your mind to the possibilities of accomplishing greater things. i.e. If you think small, thinking of accomplishing big things will make you believe you can, and hence have greater capacity and motivation to bring it to fruition. 3. Get your subconscious mind started on pondering how to achieve that success. #3 here may actually relate to the article. There may be two opposing factors at work -- on one end your mind ponders how to achieve the success, on the other hand your mind feels satisfied already, which prevents you from taking action and consciously looking further into achieving the success. Which is stronger? In the study it appears the latter is in the cases tested. However, I highly doubt a standard answer can be derived from a few limited cases. I would think there are just too many factors.