Pessimism is out. Anyone who looks up advice literature will find out things like: “Positive thinking makes you successful”. Or: “You can achieve your goals with optimism”. That sounds good, but it’s not entirely true. In fact, positive thoughts about the future can even prevent us from doing so, as psychologist Gabriele Oettingen found out in her research.
Oettingen is a professor at New York University and the University of Hamburg and has been researching for 20 years how future thinking affects our lives. And which strategies lead to achieving goals. “Those who envision the future as rosy may feel at home for the moment. But you make less effort to actually implement the goals, ”she says to the KURIER.
From work to love
This was evident in her studies both in the application processes of university graduates and in lovers who hoped to get together with their flame. And even in patients who have had hip operations, where those who dream of recovering quickly in their dreams about the future actually recovered more slowly.
So a comeback of pessimism? No. Oettingen: “One should set imagined reality aside for dreams of the future.” That means identifying the obstacles on the way to the fulfillment of wishes. So you understand that you have not yet arrived and gain the necessary energy for implementation.
Psychologist Arnd Florack from the University of Vienna also recommends this realism. “You cannot achieve goals with willpower and perseverance alone. The key is to prepare for frustration. ”
Pandemic obstacle?
But what if the hurdle is a pandemic? “We cannot change external circumstances, we can only change how we deal with them,” says Oettingen. There is no point in just thinking about what is not possible because of the pandemic. But what wishes can be fulfilled within this framework. “These are certainly different than before the pandemic. But this is also to be discovered. ”We asked five people about their hopes, projects and goals. Here are the portraits.
–
