{"id":143721,"date":"2025-04-17T07:26:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-17T11:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=143721"},"modified":"2025-04-17T08:41:04","modified_gmt":"2025-04-17T12:41:04","slug":"rethinking-positive-thinking-by-gabriele-oettingen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/rethinking-positive-thinking-by-gabriele-oettingen\/","title":{"rendered":"Rethinking Positive Thinking by Gabriele Oettingen (Book Overview)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What’s holding you back<\/a> from achieving your biggest goals? Why might your positive thinking actually be working against you instead of helping you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gabriele Oettingen’s Rethinking Positive Thinking: Inside the New Science of Motivation<\/a><\/em> challenges the common belief that visualizing success<\/a> is enough to reach your goals<\/a>. Her research shows that positive fantasies often backfire, and she offers a practical alternative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Continue reading for an overview of this book that will give you a fresh perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Overview of Rethinking Positive Thinking<\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

We all daydream about the future and fantasize about the day when we\u2019ll have achieved all of our most important goals. Psychologist Gabriele Oettingen’s Rethinking Positive Thinking: Inside the New Science of Motivation<\/em><\/a> (2014) challenges the conventional wisdom that thinking positively and visualizing yourself reaching your goals is enough to motivate you to make your dreams a reality. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oettingen found in her research that positive thinking can actually be counterproductive and make it harder for you to stay motivated<\/a> to work toward your goals. She explains that to avoid falling into the trap of positive fantasies, you need to balance your dreams with an awareness of present reality and the obstacles standing in your way<\/strong>. Recognizing the barriers you face can re-energize you by connecting your desired future to the real work needed to get there. With this balanced perspective, your positive visions become a motivating force rather than a relaxing indulgence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oettingen is a professor of psychology at New York University and the University of Hamburg. She has spent decades researching how people think about the future and how those thoughts affect our behavior and motivation. Her work on the limitations of positive thinking and the development of more effective goal-setting techniques<\/a> has influenced fields ranging from education and mental health to organizational psychology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this overview of the book Rethinking Positive Thinking: Inside the New Science of Motivation<\/em>, we\u2019ll explore Oettingen\u2019s argument that positive thinking isn\u2019t enough to get us to our goals. We\u2019ll look at how she and other researchers define positive thinking, how positive thinking seems to have a negative effect on our motivation, and what she recommends doing instead of positive thinking: a technique psychologists call mental contrasting<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Is Positive Thinking? <\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Oettingen explains that positive thinking means dwelling on mental images and daydreams of our desired future<\/strong>. These fantasies\u2014whether about publishing a novel, landing a dream job<\/a>, or finding true love\u2014give us a momentary taste of what achieving our goals might feel like. While this kind of daydreaming can provide temporary comfort, especially during stressful times, Oettingen argues that it can actually work against us and undermine our motivation to make our dreams a reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why Do Positive Fantasies Undermine Motivation?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Oettingen explains that positive fantasies give you a mental reward by allowing you to experience your desired future in your mind. But, according to her research, this creates a false sense of accomplishment<\/strong>: Your brain responds to your fantasies as if you\u2019ve already achieved your goal in real life. As a result, your motivation decreases, with measurable physiological effects such as a reduction in blood pressure (which is typically associated with a more relaxed state), and you become less energized to pursue the goal in reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oettingen explains that positive fantasies also detach you from the present<\/strong> and disengage you from the obstacles standing between the reality you have and the reality you want. She notes that, if you fail to mentally connect your dreams to the work required to achieve them, you don\u2019t prepare yourself to take action. Instead, indulging in positive fantasies may even make us less equipped to handle difficult tasks that require sustained effort: The pleasant mental escape puts us in a state of mind where we lack the drive and determination we need to push through challenges. When we\u2019re in this mindset and run into obstacles, we\u2019re more likely to give up or look for shortcuts rather than doing the necessary hard work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many of us get stuck in this cycle of dreaming about what we want without making any real progress toward our goals. Over time, this pattern of fantasizing without action leads to frustration and keeps us from reaching our potential. However, the solution isn\u2019t to suppress these thoughts entirely<\/strong>. These forward-looking thoughts and daydreams serve a purpose: They help you identify what you truly want and keep you alert to opportunities. You just need to do something else\u2014in addition to thinking positively about the future\u2014to motivate yourself<\/a> to do the hard work of achieving your goals<\/a>. We\u2019ll discuss this next.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Should We Do Instead of Positive Thinking?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Oettingen explains that, to effectively pursue our most important goals and wishes, we need strategies beyond positive fantasies alone. She recommends learning to use a strategy called <\/strong>mental contrasting<\/em><\/strong>. We\u2019ll take a closer look at what mental contrasting is, why it works, and how you can put it into practice to work toward your goals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Is Mental Contrasting?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Mental contrasting means you still think about achieving your wish, but you don\u2019t stop there. Instead, writes Oettingen, you purposefully imagine the obstacles that stand in between you\u2014in your current reality\u2014and your dream<\/strong>. By making a conscious connection between your present reality and your dream, you can gain clarity on what needs to be done and start to feel motivated. This energizes you to start working to overcome the obstacles you\u2019ve identified and to begin taking productive steps toward achieving your goals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oettingen explains that, in its most basic form, mental contrasting is a two-step process: <\/p>\n\n\n\n