Notes

Self help: forget positive thinking, attempt positive action
humanitychallenge

For years self-help gurus have actually preached the very same easy mantra: if you want to enhance your life then you require to alter how you believe. Force yourself to have positive thoughts and you will become happier. Visualise your dream self and you will delight in increased success. Think like a millionaire and you will magically grow rich. In concept, this concept sounds perfectly reasonable. However, in practice it often shows inefficient.

Take visualisation. Numerous self-improvement books motivate readers to close their eyes and picture their perfect selves; to see themselves in a big office at the top of the corporate ladder, or sipping a mixed drink as they feel the warm Caribbean sand in between their toes. Sadly, research recommends this technique does not work.




In one study led by Lien Pham at the University of California, students were asked to invest a few moments each day visualising themselves getting a high grade in an approaching test. Although the daydreaming exercise only lasted a couple of minutes, it triggered the trainees to study less and get lower marks. In another experiment led by Gabriele Oettingen from New York University, graduates were asked to take down how often they fantasised about getting their dream job after leaving college. The trainees who reported that they frequently fantasised about such success received less job deals and ended up with significantly smaller incomes.

Why should this be so? Possibly those who fantasise about a wonderful life are ill-prepared for problems, or end up being unwilling to put in the effort required to accomplish their objective. Either way, the message is clear-- imagining the perfect you is not good for your life.

Nevertheless, when it comes to alter, the message is not all gloom and doom. Years of research reveal that there is certainly a simple however highly effective way to transform how you think and feel. The method turns common sense on its head but is grounded in science. Oddly, the story begins with a world-renowned Victorian thinker and an imaginary bear.

Working at Harvard University in the late 19th century, William James, bro of the novelist Henry James, was brought in to the unconventional, frequently walking around school sporting a silk hat and red-checked trousers, and explaining his theories using entertaining prose ("As long as one poor cockroach feels the pangs of unrequited love, this world is not a moral world"). This unconventional method settled. First published in 1890, James's two-volume magnum opus The Principles of Psychology is still required reading for trainees of behavioural science.

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