by Emilie Glen Colsted

A self-fulfilling prophecy

“Self-fulfilling prophecy” is a psychological term used to describe how our beliefs and expectations automatically influence our behavior.

E.g. If you tell yourself that you are going to fail an upcoming presentation at work, then you might lose motivation and postpone preparing for it. This will then leave you with little time to write and rehearse it, which in the end may cause you to deliver an unfinished presentation.

However, If you instead tell yourself that the presentation will turn out great, it may boost your confidence and motivation to work on it. You have then increased your chances of performing well and obtained more confidence in yourself.

Admittedly, there may be many other important factors at play when it comes to how well you perform in a given situation, but monitoring your expectations may help you find a way to boost your motivation.

Visualization techniques

In sports, visualization techniques are used for rehearsal and optimizing performance. In therapy like Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, it can be used for motivation, relaxation and managing anxiety and insomnia (Patricolo et al., 2017).

But how does positive visualization work? Visualizing a positive outcome causes the brain to release dopamine. This is a chemical that makes us associate pleasurable feelings with accomplishing the situation that we rehearse in the meditation - like a presentation or a certain task.

While this process happens automatically, it can make us feel more capable and confident about the given task. Through positive visualization meditations, we can consciously stimulate this sense of empowerment that may actually help us get motivated and perform well. If you want to learn more and apply this technique, then try out the guided visualization tool: Visualize It in the Nuna app