But, uh, Best Possible Self sounds awful. Surely you’re just setting yourself up for disappointment later on? And from a quick look, it looks like the top study hasn’t measured or even considered this?
Just going by anecdote/common-sense, sure, I’d expect an exercise like that to cheer me up. And I think there’s something to be said for generally feeling mildly optimistic about life—which I think is compatible with acting realistic on important decisions—and for really trying to stay optimistic in a moment of crisis. But spending hours visualizing this perfect future life sounds like a terrible idea.
YMMV but I’m not even sure I’d put this on the list, let alone at the top.
(But genuinely, thank you for this 🙏 Sorry to be one of those commenters who only has one interesting thing to say about your post and it’s kinda negative.)
It’s an interesting point, but they’re just reviewing the evidence…
A better exercise to not fall into self-deception is ‘mental contrasting’, in which you first think about achieving your goals, and then about the obstacles that stand in your way and how to overcome them. It might also help in goal achievement, especially in combination with a technique called ‘implementation intention’.[1]
Wang G, Wang Y and Gai X (2021) A Meta-Analysis of the Effects of Mental Contrasting With Implementation Intentions on Goal Attainment. Front. Psychol. 12:565202. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.565202
Thank you for this!
But, uh, Best Possible Self sounds awful. Surely you’re just setting yourself up for disappointment later on? And from a quick look, it looks like the top study hasn’t measured or even considered this?
Just going by anecdote/common-sense, sure, I’d expect an exercise like that to cheer me up. And I think there’s something to be said for generally feeling mildly optimistic about life—which I think is compatible with acting realistic on important decisions—and for really trying to stay optimistic in a moment of crisis. But spending hours visualizing this perfect future life sounds like a terrible idea.
YMMV but I’m not even sure I’d put this on the list, let alone at the top.
(But genuinely, thank you for this 🙏 Sorry to be one of those commenters who only has one interesting thing to say about your post and it’s kinda negative.)
It’s an interesting point, but they’re just reviewing the evidence…
A better exercise to not fall into self-deception is ‘mental contrasting’, in which you first think about achieving your goals, and then about the obstacles that stand in your way and how to overcome them. It might also help in goal achievement, especially in combination with a technique called ‘implementation intention’.[1]
Wang G, Wang Y and Gai X (2021) A Meta-Analysis of the Effects of Mental Contrasting With Implementation Intentions on Goal Attainment. Front. Psychol. 12:565202. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.565202