I've been chewing on the ideas of last post, and what I've come to, as something effective and authentic, is goal-setting. Rather than telling myself "I already have this" I am setting the goal, visualizing that, and telling myself, "I can get this if I keep working at it."
This seems much more balanced, in line with scientific research, and honest.
There is another element I've been playing with, that seems outside the range of this goal setting, and I'm not sure what to call it. Structural Tension is what Robert Fritz calls it, Mental Contrasting is what Gabriele Oettingen calls it, but the bottom line is that, if you want to get yourself moving towards a goal subconsciously, you need to visualize both the positive outcome you want, and the current reality/obstacles in your way. This sets up the tension that causes the feeling of necessity to act. After that, you can use whatever strategies you want to help you get it done, but Oettingen added Implementation Intentions into a method she abbreviates to "WOOP." Wish Outcome Obstacle (mental contrasting) Plan (implementation intention) I personally would also add a step where you ask yourself why the outcomes are important to you. Then it becomes "WOW, OP"
In any case, even without mental contrasting, setting goals has robust research behind it, as does hopefulness in regards to your goals (believing you can accomplish them) so I feel comfortable implementing that. This is my current strategy going forwards and we'll see how it performs for me. Hopefully better than the previous strategy which allowed me to get more done but also exhausted me and then I got sick.
