Gabriele Oettingen – Rethinking ‘Positive Thinking’ a formula for the current crisis? #119

<p class="p1"><span class="s1">On today’s Brain Booster it is my great pleasure to introduce as my guest Gabriele Oettingen.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">In this current situation this may well be one of THE most important podcasts I have ever done. Gabriele’s work is truly groundbreaking and incredibly thought provoking.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">It is counter intuitive to ‘conventional wisdom’.</span></p> <p class="p3"><span class="s1">So often in golf or life we are inundated with advice to “think positively.”</span></p> <p class="p3"><span class="s1">Just ‘Think positively, believe in yourself’!!!</span></p> <p class="p3"><span class="s1">The general message is the same: look on the bright side, be optimistic in the face of adversity, and focus on your dreams. And whether we’re trying to motivate ourselves to win a golf tournament or run a marathon, we’re told time and time again that focusing on fulfilling our wishes will make them come true.</span></p> <p class="p3"><span class="s1">Gabriele Oettingen draws on more than twenty years of research in the science of human motivation to reveal why the conventional wisdom falls short.</span></p> <p class="p3"><span class="s1">The obstacles that we think prevent us from realizing our deepest wishes can actually lead to their fulfillment. Starry-eyed dreaming isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, and as it turns out, dreamers are not often doers.</span></p> <p class="p3"><span class="s1">Based on her research and large-scale scientific studies, Oettingen introduces a new way to visualize the future, called mental contrasting. It combines focusing on our dreams with visualizing the obstacles that stand in our way. By experiencing our dreams in our minds and facing reality we can address our fears, make concrete plans, and gain energy to take action.</span></p> <p class="p3"><span class="s1">In Rethinking Positive Thinking, Oettingen applies mental contrasting to three key areas of personal change— becoming healthier, nurturing personal and pr