How to Amp Up Motivation with Mental Contrasting

Achieving goals is as much about persistence and determination as anything else. When you are inspired, despite the requisite obstacles, you’re likely to remain committed to the process and get where you want to go.

Mental contrasting, a process I described in Monday’s post, can help us stay motivated throughout the process. Here’s how to do it.

How to Use Mental Contrasting to Achieve Your Goals

Pick a goal. Get clear on what you want to achieve. Choose a goal based on your desires and abilities, not the expectations of others or the expected rewards.

Imagine the benefits of achieving it. Visualize what it will feel like to reach this goal. Feel the emotions that will come with its completion.

Now, visualize the process not outcome. Be sure to imagine the process: what it will feel like when you start, the excitement you’ll experience, the obstacles you’ll encounter and the pride you’ll feel as you push past them to achieve your goal. The process is often more meaningful than the outcome.

Evaluate where you are today. This is where the contrast comes in. How is your reality right now different than it will be when you achieve your goal – how is it different than where you want to be.

Write down obstacles. Now, think about your current reality and the goal you want to achieve. Imagine, in specific detail the obstacles that will come into play. There are bound to be setbacks, the most successful people expect them and push through them.

Decide whether to continue.   After imagining the outcomes and obstacles are the rewards of achieving your goal still worth the challenges you’ll encounter?

Mental contrasting can help us identify when our chances of success are bleak. It also helps us to see that we may not want the goal bad enough to bother with the challenges and setbacks we’ll face. That’s good information. It keeps us from wasting time on things that aren’t all that meaningful to us. It’s not disgrace to give up on a goal when you fill in that space with something more appropriate; something that inspires and motivates you.

There are plenty of things I’d like to achieve – I think it would be awesome to stand on Mt. Everest. But, I don’t want to work hard enough to overcome the obstacles it would take to get me there. I’m uncomfortable with heights, so that’s a deterrent. I have some physical limitations, which make climbing difficult, I don’t like cold, and I’m a big whiner so, I’m not that inspired to train for years to get to the top of the mountain.

While the ultimate rush of reaching the summit would be fantastic, the things I would need to do to get there, don’t inspire me a whole lot. This makes my chance of success highly unlikely.  (Note: I didn’t say impossible, I do think we can do what we put our mind to. But climbing mountains doesn’t excite me enough to focus my thoughts and energy in a way that would be necessary if I were actually going to do it.)

By contrasting how I am living my life now and the obstacles I would need to face to get to Mt. Everest, I can see clearly it’s not the goal for me.

Now, writing another book? Yep, that’s a goal that gets me fired up. Of course there are obstacles here to, time limitations, self-doubt, exhaustion. But, I feel inspired when I think of how I would deal with those things.

Here’s the contrast: Today, I’m I’ve got a notebook full of scribbled ideas, but not a central theme. Still, I can imagine the finished book, I’m well aware of the obstacles and I’m still excited to get after it. Guess I’m ready to begin.

Once you’ve honed in on your goal and been through the mental contrasting process, get going. Take one baby step today toward your ultimate objective and you’ll be charging toward your dream.

 

 

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