What's the main advice of the 'Secret' movie? Imagine yourself in the moment of achieving the goal, to experience emotions, to feel the smell and touch, immersing yourself in the picture as much as possible to attract success.
Sounds good, but it is the most harmful advice to achieve the goals that you have ever received!
In fact, such a visualization weakens your ambition and reduces your desire to act. Motivation becomes sluggish, like a rag, the energy becomes less, the chances of success drop.
I am now talking about goals that are only up to you. The machine can still be given to you, but you don't know English or the perfect body. But why does the motivation fall? It's all about the brain.
When you draw a rainbow picture, you give the subconscious a signal: "It's okay, it's all right, it's all right, it's all right, it's all right, it's all right, it's all right, it's all right, it's all right, it's all right. The brain does not see the difference between an imaginary picture and a real one. From his point of view, it makes no sense to allocate energy to actions when the goal has already been "achieved". And it is logical.
Guess in what case it is impossible to open the door? When it is open! When is it impossible to achieve the goal? When it is reached. And since you were able to convince the brain that you already have what you want, don't expect to be motivated.
What do scientists say about visualizing the moment of success?
German professors of social psychology Heather Kappes and Gabriel Oettingen have been studying the influence of positive fantasies on human behavior for more than 15 years. They have come to the conclusion that people who represent the moment of success have the lowest scores in achieving their goals.
Once they randomly divided students into four groups. The first visualized the moment of success, the second practiced fear of failure, the third represented the process of moving towards the goal, and the fourth was a control and did not do any of this.
At the exams, the best result was achieved by the group that represented the preparation process: how they read, remember and prepare. The second place was taken by the students, who frightened themselves with a possible failure. They were followed by a control group that simply prepared for the exams.
The fantasists of success were the worst. They did everything right: they imagined themselves in the list of the best, rejoiced, smelled, heard sounds and celebrated the victory, but the result was the opposite.
According to the Law of Attraction, positive thoughts were to attract success. But according to the Law of Brainworks, such visualization relaxed the body and reduced motivation. They felt more sluggish and reluctant to prepare for exams.
Maybe it's an isolated case?
Unfortunately, no. Professors Liang Pham and Shelly Taylor from the University of California conducted the same experiment with students in 1997, 1998 and 1999. The result was the same.
Students who represented the preparation process started to prepare for the exams before everyone else. They acted calmly and confidently, and the preparation was easier for them. They were more likely to make it on time and get the highest score.
The control group, which did not deal with visualization, always ranked second.
The worst results were shown by the students, who represented the joyous moment of getting the highest score. They were less likely to be on time and were reluctant to start exam preparation later than others.
Their brains believed that success had been achieved and that the highest score had already been obtained. So why bother and be motivated? That's right, there's no need at all!
What other researches were there?
Thomas Langens and Heinz-Dieter Schmalt from the University of Wuppertal, Germany, concluded in their research that positive visualization is particularly harmful to people with fear of failure.
The visualization of success has increased their anxiety, because if they fail, the difference between what they want and what they want will be able to see is particularly acute. They were more often depressed when something went wrong and were less motivated than the control group.
But the visualization of the goal attainment process, on the contrary, made them more confident. By scrolling through the necessary actions in their heads, they became calm, acted decisively and believed that everything would work out.
Gabrielle Ottingen moved on. She studied the impact of the visualization of success on the processes in the body.
When a person feels positive emotions pretending to have achieved a goal, the body relaxes, blood pressure drops and heart rate decreases. Everything is fine in the dream world: you don't have to go anywhere, you don't have to do anything.
Those who were successful said they felt less energetic than the control group and physiological tests confirmed their observations.
Conclude.
Benefits of positive expectations
If you adjust to the idea that everything will work out, that you will easily bypass obstacles, and the process will be interesting and pleasant, the brain will believe it. Pleasant emotions will be included, and there will be a desire to act.
Positive expectations in a matter of seconds remove the unwillingness to do the work that is needed to achieve the goal. Therefore, the ability to adjust to the positive can be a key factor in your success.
