This Mind Trick Works Way Better Than Delusional Optimism It's much easier to sustain the tenacity necessary to succeed when we have sound reasons to believe our ambitious goals are not impossible.
By Thai Nguyen Edited by Dan Bova
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Every entrepreneur wants to maximize their productivity and achieve their goals. Each day becomes a white-knuckle grind, and the struggle for self-discipline and will power is exhausting. But there is a better way -- editing your personal narrative. Pastor and professor at Houston Baptist University, Russell Minick says, "The story we operate from is the single most powerful factor in character development, not willpower."
Everyone has a personal narrative -- a script, a story -- that shapes your view of the world and directs your behaviors. Your ability to exercise self-discipline and willpower is dependent upon the story you're telling yourself.
A study by Timothy Wilson, professor of psychology at the University of Virginia, took a group of college freshmen who struggled academically and felt intellectually inadequate. They were split into two groups; the intervention group was informed that it's common for students to struggle in their freshmen year but improve as they adjust to college life. They also watched videos of upper-class students reinforcing this message.
The goal was to prompt the students to edit their narratives to reinterpret their negative, self-defeating inner-dialogue. It worked. The students in the intervention group significantly improved in their GPA over the next year, and were less likely to drop out. In the control group that received no information, 25 percent of students dropped out by the end of their sophomore year, compared with 5 percent in the intervention group.
To effectively edit your story, you need to understand the five stages every personal narrative progresses through. I've adapted MIT lecturer Cameron Herold's model of the "transition curve," featured by Tim Ferriss, to explain the most crucial stages for editing your story:
1. Uninformed optimism.
Every new venture begins this way. Filled with excitement; you feel invincible and unstoppable. You are "green" with a shade of naivety, yet confident to deal with any major challenges or opposition.
Related: 8 Ways to Make Certain Optimism Doesn't Blind You to Signs You're Going Broke
2. Informed pessimism.
This is where doubt creeps in. You're more informed and gaining more experience, and you encounter information that conflicts with your plans.
As your pessimism grows, the mental struggle and doubt leads to fear. You begin to procrastinate as a coping mechanism. Your self-discipline and willpower become paralyzed.
3. Crises of meaning.
This stage is crucial for editing your personal narrative. It's the stage where Wilson implemented the intervention for the students. They experienced challenges in the "informed pessimism" stage and they internalized that negative information into their own script and storyline.
Related: Turning Crisis Into Opportunity: 5 Ways to Deal With Hardship
4. Crash and burn (without editing).
If you fail to edit your narrative and reinterpret the negative information, no amount of motivation, willpower, or self-discipline will pull you through the "crises of meaning." A negative script dictating your life will only lead to failure and perpetual struggle. Your unedited story will lead you to crash and burn.
5. Informed Optimism (with editing).
After incorporating new, supportive information into your narrative, you're set on a positive and motivated trajectory. However, your optimism needs to be informed. The new information needs to be valid and true. Using trite affirmations with no grounding in reality only causes more frustration and cripples your performance.
The students from the study were exposed to real accounts from other students. The information was trustworthy. When your optimism is informed, you will truly believe a goal is achievable, and your behaviors will be congruent. Self-discipline and willpower become much easier. Just like the students incorporated other helpful storylines into their own narrative, reading biographies and memoirs exposes you to what is possible so you can adapt their storylines into your own.
Editing your narrative is also a fluid process. Your story is iterative, not fixed. A "crises of meaning" may come at any time, or multiple times, in life. Negative scripts and doubt will enter your storyline, and need to be replaced. Adopt a journaling practice. Regular reflection on your narrative will ensure you keep editing it in a way that empowers you to be productive and achieve your goals.
Related: Mario Batali and the Power of 'Delusional Optimism'
