The Benefits of "Negative Thinking" for Goal Attainment

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It's the 2008 summer Olympics, and gold-medal winner Michael Phelps is poised to break his own record for the 200-meter butterfly swimming race – a competition that no one could touch him in.

But then, after Phelps’s first turn, his goggles fill with water and he cannot see. To stop and adjust his goggles would mean disqualification but without his sight, how is he supposed to know exactly when to turn? This misfortune could cost Phelps precious seconds each lap.

So, what did he do? More importantly, what had he done that prepared him for this moment?

The limitations of positive thinking

We often talk about the power of positive thinking: simply envision yourself acing the job interview and the position is yours, or imagine driving the car of your dreams and soon enough, it will materialize before you. Ever since the publication of Norman Vincent Peale’s The Power of Positive Thinking in 1952, this materialization technique has been a central tenet of self-made men and motivational speakers. But as you have probably experienced first hand, life isn’t quite that simple.

There is an important distinction between wishful thinking and what psychologist Martin Seligman has called learned optimism. While the former can easily lapse into escapist fantasies, the latter is the conscious practice of viewing the world from a positive perspective. It means understanding “failures” or misfortunes as temporary setbacks and opportunities for growth.

To complicate things further, it turns out that optimism alone can backfire. In Strangers to Ourselves: Discovering the Adaptive Unconscious, cognitive psychologist Timothy Wilson notes how positive self-affirmations alone can actually make people feel worse about themselves and their abilities to achieve their goals. Similarly, studies have found that couples who claimed optimism about their future were more likely to experience marital strife. Dieters who focused on visualizing their fit future selves shed fewer pounds. Perhaps most surprisingly, university graduates who fantasized about their success transferring into the real world earned less, received fewer job offers, and sent fewer job applications out in the first place.

Why might this be?

Well, our brains are very good at envisioning imagined scenarios. So good, in fact, that our brains have trouble distinguishing between something that really happened, and something that we just imagined. This is because imagining an object, situation, or action in vivid detail lights up the same neural pathways that the same object, situation, or action would trigger in real life.

For example, psychologist Carey Morewdge conducted a study to see if the act of imagining eating unhealthy food might have the same impact as actually eating it. He had one group of volunteers envision themselves eating M&Ms, while the other group vividly imagined putting coins into a vending machine. After this exercise, both groups were invited to sit down in front of a bowl of M&Ms while they awaited results. As suspected, the group that had envisioned eating M&Ms actually ate fewer. Their desire for chocolate had been sated by simply imagining the act of eating it.

Our ability to simulate reality so effectively means that we can actually learn from imagined events and alter our behavior accordingly. On the other hand, it means that our daydreams can deliver us the same results and sense of reward as fulfilling our goals in real life. And if we feel like we’ve already won, we lose the motivation, the sharpness, and grit it takes to pursue our goals, even in the face of crisis and change. In this case, optimism can actually be an impediment to progress.

Simply put, positive thinking and learned optimism alone are not enough to attain our goals. Our dreams act as beacons that tell us where we want to go, but we need a healthy dose of negative thinking to illuminate that path, and to expose the obstacles we will face along the way.

Michael Phelps & mental contrasting

There is a variation of positive thinking that is actually helpful. Positive visualization and what psychologist Jerome Singer called positive constructive daydreaming (or what I call deliberate daydreaming) does help people maintain hope and take active steps toward fulfilling their goals and feeling fulfilled in general.

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It’s a practice of actively imagining yourself taking steps to do what you desire. Writing in descriptive detail helps. But that alone might not suffice. Just take the case of Michael Phelps, for example.

Bob Bowman, Phelps’s longtime swimming coach, had led Phelps and other swimmers through detailed positive visualization for years. Based on several studies, other coaches have adopted this technique, too, since the 1990s. But that practice alone would not have helped Phelps in his water-goggled moment, so what did?

Unknown to Bowman, Phelps had been practicing something else he created for himself: negative visioning. Call it “constructive catastrophic thinking,” if you want, but Phelps had already imagined in detail how he would respond in this moment of crisis. He already knew precisely how many strokes he would take before he reached the next wall. So, unable to see, he counted his strokes and made agile turns.

And he won.

In psychology, the practice of balancing learned optimism with practical realism – or countering a positive thought with a “negative” one – is called mental contrasting. This practice allows you to temper your expectations about a desired outcome so that you can make more informed decisions and sustain motivation while working toward your goals. But mental contrasting is not the same as catastrophizing, or catching a case of the “poor me’s.” Rather, it is making sure that you factor in realistic obstacles when formulating your plan for the future.

Think about it this way. Embedding your vision for the future in the context of your bad habits, fears, unexpected surprises, and the world’s sometimes harsh realities can help you determine if your goal is really achievable, or worth it given your values and other responsibilities. In this way, the obstacles in our path trigger us to think more critically, and ultimately become the means by which we achieve our goals in the first place.

How to practice mental contrasting in goal setting

Whatever your aims, you know how difficult it is to shape a vision for the future these days. You also likely know that conventional methods of abstract goal-setting and wishful thinking dream boards – even in the best of times – rarely help you fulfill your aims. That’s why it’s so essential to ground your goals in reality by imagining all possible key obstacles, both external and internal, physical and mental.

So, as you plan for the year ahead, I invite you to try and strike a balance between learned optimism and practical realism. Try this:

1. Imagine yourself one year from now, looking back on your best version of 2021. What have you accomplished? Which strengths emerged to guide your decisions and build your success? What motivated you when you faced inevitable obstacles? What deep purpose drives you to advance your most meaningful work?
2. Identify 3-4 reachable, stretchable, meaningful goals that direct your purpose and light you up.
3. Now, what are some of the key challenges you might face as you move toward those goals? Identify one key internal obstacle that you have some control over. Then imagine how you will call on your genius and strengths to "maneuver" through and around that obstacle.
4. Craft a simple "Genius Maneuver" statement using this format: "When I encounter [obstacle], I will bring my [genius trait/strength] forward to [maneuver/counter-move/way to contend with the obstacle]."

Next time you encounter hurdles on your path to meaningful work and a more excellent life, repeat this Genius Maneuver mantra to yourself. Though it may not give you the same warm, fuzzy feeling that envisioning your dream Ferrari does, it will help you learn how you can tap into the deep well of resourcefulness and genius within you – even in the face of profound challenges.