I was chatting with James about the latest model and tool that he has been developing for the business and the topic turned to the concept of visualising goals. I’ve seen it referenced many times in TED talks and management training, and it’s often touted by ex professional sportspeople in their motivational speaking careers. That image of crossing the finish line in first place, the roar of the crowd, the weight of the medal around your neck. It’s that vivid pre-visualisation that they credit with getting them through the tough, dark days of their injuries, the brutal training.

It’s inspiring hearing these paragons of their sports talk about all the compromises they made and they sheer joy of the payoff when it came to pass. In the back of my mind I think there’s also a cynical little gremlin whispering in my ear, questioning why we hear less from the people who came second. Or fourth? What happens when you only hear from a self-selected cadre of the winners? What if they create the expectation that everyone can win, when the majority won’t?

It doesn’t sound like the best train of thought for me to go down in my blog about getting the best for people through coaching, that’s for sure. I think all the years of reading pop culture articles about ‘manifesting’ and the universe giving you what you asked for, in some mystical bargain has probably made me cynical (or at least curious where the portrait in the attic is hidden*).

I touched upon Gabirelle Oettingen’s nifty WOOP model in my New year blog and my mind then drifted to her research on fantasy realisation and mental contrasting, which really digs into the heart of what steps are needed to move your wishes from being a cosy space in which your brain wallows in the fantasy of attainment (and weirdly, gets the chemical payoff, without you actually achieving, or moving towards the outcome that you seek) to actually getting it done.

The key extra step is spending the same time and effort investigating the negative reality. In order for you to have the impetus and drive to make the changes to move you towards your goal you need to have a complete appreciation of the downsides of the present that you’re experiencing. It’s nice to picture a better future, which is where the lure of daydreaming about things can act as a bit of a siren’s call. It is enticing, but pulls you towards the rocks. Unfortunately it is easier to indulge in the fantasy than taking the effort to make some changes to move you there in reality. The danger that you can get into exploring what’s going wrong in the present is that that can also be a demotivator and can tamp down any energy that you were feeling towards making the change.

This is where the research suggested that you should look to mentally contrast the sought after future with the negative reality. Gaining a clear picture of both was shown to boost how energised people felt about making the necessary changes, which in turn also boosted the effort they put in. The combination of the two boosted their performance. By contrast, those who focussed entirely on the future fantasy or the negative reality actually were less likely to succeed.

The links with coaching seem pretty clear to me. In each session we look to clearly identify the goal or the outcome that the client is striving for. To pin it down in real terms and have them really work out what it will look like when they achieve it. The next step in pretty much every coaching model or process is to then rake through where the client is currently at, what’s the landscape they’re operating in, what are the hurdles and the obstacles that have stood and are standing in their way.

James’ tool, the “Aspiration summit framework” uses the mountaineering metaphor to help guide you through organising your thoughts and your resources, visualise where you’re headed and to pick through the storms, challenges and obstacles that have been blocking you so far. Have a browse through this resource and his others.

https://www.aspirationexperts.com/resources

I find reading the kind of research mentioned in this blog really interesting and affirming of my personal experience in this space. On working with clients it’s often really striking how rapidly they make progress once they’ve talked it through.

And they’ve not had to sell their soul to the devil to achieve their dreams (or, if they have they’ve properly weighed the different plusses and minuses of doing so beforehand, and have cleared a nice bit of space in the attic and a sturdy lock on the hatch to stop anyone from stumbling upon it unexpectedly).

*Check Oscar Wilde’s Picture of Dorian Grey… or any other Faustian pact tale.