Transcription
Let's say somebody sets a goal of running five miles four times a week. One version of this would be okay: sit back in a chair and think about how great you're gonna feel and look if you're doing this every day, how your health is going to improve. That's the visualization goal of visualizing the end point.
Turns out that is far less effective, and maybe even counterproductive, compared to thinking about what's going to happen if you don't do this: the negative health outcomes that are going to occur, the disappointment you're going to have in yourself. So, foreshadowing failure turns out to be the best way to motivate toward goal pursuit. In fact, there's a near doubling in the likelihood that people will reach goals of any kind when they're constantly thinking about how bad it's going to be if they fail.