June 8, 2025

MM#415--Beyond Positive Thinking: The Science of Making Dreams Reality & Becoming Dreamers & Doers

FAN MAIL--We would love YOUR feedback--Send us a Text Message Have you ever wondered why all that positive visualization hasn't transformed your life? Despite your vivid daydreams of success, you find yourself still sitting on the couch, no closer to your goals? Motivation science has the answer, and it's not what you might expect. This eye-opening episode dives deep into Gabrielle Oettingen's revolutionary research on motivation as explored in her 2014 book "Rethinking Positive Thinking." W...

FAN MAIL--We would love YOUR feedback--Send us a Text Message

Have you ever wondered why all that positive visualization hasn't transformed your life? Despite your vivid daydreams of success, you find yourself still sitting on the couch, no closer to your goals? Motivation science has the answer, and it's not what you might expect.

This eye-opening episode dives deep into Gabrielle Oettingen's revolutionary research on motivation as explored in her 2014 book "Rethinking Positive Thinking." We uncover the counterintuitive truth that simply dreaming about your desired future can actually make you less likely to achieve it. When we engage in pleasant fantasies about our goals, our brains experience a false sense of fulfillment that drains our motivation to tackle real-world challenges. As Oettingen explains, "By fooling our brains into thinking we're already successful, we lose motivation and energy to do what it actually takes to become successful."

But don't despair! We explore Oettingen's powerful alternative technique called "mental contrasting" - a method that transforms wishful thinking into actionable energy. Rather than abandoning your dreams, mental contrasting teaches you to pair your positive vision with a clear-eyed assessment of the obstacles in your path. This balanced approach has been scientifically proven to significantly increase motivation across numerous domains, from weight loss to academic performance to business negotiations. Through mental contrasting, you can become both a dreamer AND a doer - someone who not only imagines a better future but takes concrete steps to create it.

Ready to stop daydreaming and start achieving? Visit teammojoacademy.com where we've gathered everything discussed in this podcast along with additional resources to help you apply these concepts immediately. Let's put theory into action and get your mojo on!

Key Points from the Episode:

• Merely visualizing success puts us in a state of "bliss, calmness and lethargy" that saps our energy
• Fantasizing tricks our brain into thinking we've already achieved our goals
• "Dreamers are not often doers" - positive visualization without reality awareness doesn't work
• Mental contrasting is the solution: visualize both dreams AND obstacles standing in your way
• This technique energizes us by creating "the necessity to act"
• Studies show mental contrasting has helped people quit smoking, lose weight, improve grades, and enhance relationships
• The key is becoming both "dreamers AND doers" rather than just dreamers

Check out our show page at teammojoacademy.com for everything discussed in this podcast and other great resources to help you get your mojo on.

Other resources:

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00:00 - Welcome to Theory to Action

00:37 - When Dreaming Saps Your Energy

02:48 - Mental Contrasting: Becoming Dreamers AND Doers

05:51 - Applying Mental Contrasting to Life

07:26 - Closing and Call to Action

WEBVTT

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Welcome to the Theory to Action podcast, where we examine the timeless treasures of wisdom from the great books in less time, to help you take action immediately and ultimately to create and lead a flourishing life.

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Now here's your host, david Kaiser flourishing life.

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Now here's your host, david Kaiser.

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Hello, I am David, and welcome back to another Mojo Minute.

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As is our custom, let's begin with the opening quote.

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Go on to the book.

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If you want to unwind, you can take some deep breaths, get a massage or go for a walk, but you can also try simply closing your eyes and fantasizing about some future outcome that you might enjoy.

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But what about when your objective is to make your wish a reality?

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The last thing you want to be is relaxed.

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You want to be energized enough to get off the couch and lose those pounds, or find that job or study for that test, and you want to be motivated enough to stay engaged, even when the inevitable obstacles or challenges arise.

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We have seen that the principle of dream it, wish it, do it does not hold true, and now we know why.

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In dreaming it, you undercut the energy you need to do it.

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You put yourself in a temporary state of bliss, calmness and lethargy.

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And that, my friends, comes to us from Gabrielle Otengin's wonderful 2014 book called Rethinking Positive Thinking.

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Now, gabrielle is one of the world's leading researchers in the science of motivation and she has some very, very, dare I say, very interesting research about the negative impacts of this type of daydreaming that we shared in our first pull quote.

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She shares several stories, but let's go back to the book to hear her summary of this research.

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Going back to the book Yet dreamers are not often doers.

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My research has confirmed that merely dreaming about the future makes people less likely to realize their dreams and wishes, as does dwelling on the obstacles in their path.

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There are multiple reasons why dreaming detached from an awareness of reality doesn't cut it.

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The pleasurable act of dreaming seems to let us fulfill our wishes in our minds, sapping our energy to perform the hard work of meeting the challenges in real life work of meeting the challenges in real life.

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Sapping our energy to perform the hard work isn't a good thing.

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Gabrielle goes on to say.

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In particular, by fooling our brains into thinking we're already successful, we lose motivation and energy to do what actually it takes to become successful Fascinating stuff.

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So when we start drifting off into dreamland and engaging in our fantasies of successful this or successful that project, what are we supposed to go?

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What are we supposed to do?

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Well, we turn to our guide again, ms Otengin.

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What say you, ma'am?

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Going back to the book, another way to visualize our future exists in a more complex approach that emerges out of the work I've done in the scientific study of human motivation.

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I call this method mental contrasting, and it instructs us to dream our dreams but then visualize the personal barriers that, or impediments that, prevent us from achieving these dreams.

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Perhaps we fear that by bringing our dreams directly up against reality we'll quash our aspirations.

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Then we'll wind up even more lethargic and unmotivated and stuck.

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But that's not what happens.

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When we perform mental contrasting, we gain energy to take action, and when we go on to specify the actions we intend to take as obstacles arise, we energize ourselves even further.

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She goes on to say in my studies, people who have applied mental contrasting have become significantly more motivated to quit cigarettes, lose weight, get better grades, sustain healthier relationships, negotiate more effectively in business situations you name it.

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Simply put, by adding a bit of realism to people's positive imaginings of the future, mental contrasting enables them to become dreamers and doers.

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Hooyah, super, super, great stuff there.

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What a nugget of wisdom Mental contrasting.

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Mental contrasting makes us, or rather enables us enables us to become dreamers and doers.

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Important distinction dreamers and doers, that's what we want to become.

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So in today's Mojo Minute, when we begin to drift off into dreamland and on our next project, that we think we can't let our minds just drift into some sappy state of feel-good rainbows and unicorns.

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We must tug on those reins of reality, get our minds back and say let's redirect this with an overlay of mental contrasting, thanks to Gabrielle Otengen and her great work, because just letting our minds go over to that counterproductive state that we just learned about, that's just taking us further and further away from our dreams becoming realities, not closer.

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We need to overlay that dream of ours with mental contrasting and that, my friends, is immediately contrasting those dreams and our ideal outcome with the realities that stand currently in our way or that have stood for weeks, months, years and decades.

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Because in doing that we become not lethargic, as we learned, we become energized and fired up.

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She calls this the necessity to act and it's the catalyst into helping us take that next step forward in our dreams doing instead of dreaming, and putting theory into action.

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Hoo-yah, hoo-yah again.

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Putting theory into action and doing instead of dreaming.

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Thank you, ms Odenjind, for that wonderful reminder.

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You have helped put us back on the road to a flourishing life.

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Thank you for joining us.

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We hope you enjoyed this Theory to Action podcast.

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Be sure to check out our show page at teammojoacademycom, where we have everything we discussed in this podcast, as well as other great resources.

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Until next time, keep getting your mojo on.

MM#415--Beyond Positive Thinking: The Science of Making Dreams Reality & Becoming Dreamers & Doers

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