{"id":45313,"date":"2021-08-04T10:45:00","date_gmt":"2021-08-04T14:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=45313"},"modified":"2021-08-16T12:08:07","modified_gmt":"2021-08-16T16:08:07","slug":"visualizing-your-goals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/visualizing-your-goals\/","title":{"rendered":"How Visualizing Your Goals Can Turn Against You"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Do you believe that visualizing your dreams can help you make them a reality? What if it has the opposite effect? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You might have heard self-help gurus talk about the power of visualizing your goals. While visualizing the desired final outcome of your efforts could be helpful in keeping your goals top of mind, too much visualization can actually have the opposite effect. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is why goal visualization can sometimes be a double-edged sword. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Visualization: A Double-Edged Sword<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Visualization can be a powerful psychological tool: visualizing your goals can convince your subconscious mind<\/a> that you are<\/em> successful, which can prompt you to act in successful ways. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the other hand, too much visualization can actually have the opposite effect: After a certain point, your subconscious mind<\/a> confuses visualization with actual progress. <\/strong>If you talk about, think about, and explain a project long enough, you begin to feel you\u2019re closer to achieving it, even though you may not have taken any actual, measurable steps toward your goal<\/a>. It feels<\/em> like you\u2019ve been productive if you\u2019re spent five hours talking about something\u2014but you haven\u2019t, and you may not have any psychological energy left to take actual action. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Upton Sinclair, who decided to run for Governor of California in 1934, is an example of how visualization can be a double-edged sword. In an unusual method of self-promotion, Sinclair published a short book called I, Governor of California, and How I Ended Poverty: A True Story of the Future<\/em><\/a>. The book outlined\u2014in the past tense<\/em>\u2014all the policies he\u2019d enacted as governor, as if he were looking back on a successful, productive term. As noted by friends of his around that time, he then promptly lost all interest in the campaign. It was as if his own self-promotion had convinced him he\u2019d done the hard parts, and there was no need to keep trying, and he lost the election by a significant margin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Negative Visualization May Be More Useful<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The negative effects of visualization are supported by science. Researchers examining the effects of visualization on goal achievement have found that when subjects used positive visualization<\/a> techniques for a goal they wanted to accomplish, they lost energy for that goal<\/a> and were less likely to achieve it. This effect held true even if the subjects were simply visualizing positive things that might happen in the coming week: After visualizing, they accomplished less during the week. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In contrast, subjects who either visualized negative things or thought about the possibility that they might not achieve their goal had higher energy and accomplished more afterward. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The researchers hypothesize that visualizing a positive outcome has a relaxing effect on the body (one way they measured their subjects\u2019 reactions was by tracking their systolic blood pressure, a useful proxy for either relaxation or anxiety). For this reason, psychologists sometimes use positive visualization techniques to help anxious patients relax. However, if your goal is to accomplish something that requires energy and action, such relaxation techniques can be counterproductive. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Do you believe that visualizing your dreams can help you make them a reality? What if it has the opposite effect? You might have heard self-help gurus talk about the power of visualizing your goals. While visualizing the desired final outcome of your efforts could be helpful in keeping your goals top of mind, too much visualization can actually have the opposite effect. Here is why goal visualization can sometimes be a double-edged sword.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":38342,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42,9,43],"tags":[191],"class_list":["post-45313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-motivation","category-psychology","category-self-improvement","tag-ego-is-the-enemy","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"\nHow Visualizing Your Goals Can Turn Against You - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"While visualizing your goals could be helpful in keeping them top of mind, too much visualization can actually have the opposite effect.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/visualizing-your-goals\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How Visualizing Your Goals Can Turn Against You\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"While visualizing your goals could be helpful in keeping them top of mind, too much visualization can actually have the opposite effect.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/visualizing-your-goals\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-08-04T14:45:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-08-16T16:08:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/miracle-morning-visualization.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"750\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"290\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Darya Sinusoid\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Darya Sinusoid\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/visualizing-your-goals\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/visualizing-your-goals\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Darya Sinusoid\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0421cce75bc249b11e2517b3a91f9c46\"},\"headline\":\"How Visualizing Your Goals Can Turn Against You\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-08-04T14:45:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-08-16T16:08:07+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/visualizing-your-goals\/\"},\"wordCount\":517,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/visualizing-your-goals\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/miracle-morning-visualization.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Ego is the Enemy\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Motivation\",\"Psychology\",\"Self-Improvement\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/visualizing-your-goals\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/visualizing-your-goals\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/visualizing-your-goals\/\",\"name\":\"How Visualizing Your Goals Can Turn Against You - 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