Visualisation – does it work, and how do you make it help?

What I write in the book — and what research adds

In the chapter Visualisation in my book I tell the stories of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jim Carrey and Michael Phelps, and of how I myself go through a talk in my head before I give it. The exercise in the chapter ends with what I call the most important step: rewinding the film and seeing yourself do the work.

That step holds up well against the research. But there are a few things in the chapter I want to add nuance to here.

The stories of the successful. Stories of celebrities who visualised their success are inspiring, but they don't prove that the visualisation was the cause. We rarely hear about all the people who pictured the same thing and didn't get there. That is why the experiments below say more than the stories.

The mental satnav. In the book I write that once the goal has been entered, the brain automatically starts looking for opportunities. It is an image I like, but research doesn't support the idea that this happens by itself. What does have support is narrower: a clear plan for when and how to act makes you act more often.

The reference to Gollwitzer. In the exercise I cite Peter Gollwitzer for the claim that people who visualise the path do better than those who visualise the result. That finding comes closer to Lien Pham and Shelley Taylor's 1999 study. Gollwitzer's research is about something related: if–then plans. And, as it turns out, that is the other half of what works best.

When visualisation backfires

The psychologist Gabriele Oettingen has spent decades researching how thoughts about the future affect what we do. In a series of studies published in 2002, she and Doris Mayer distinguished between two things that are often confused: expectations, the judgement of how likely you are to succeed, and fantasies, the vivid and pleasant images of having succeeded.

Positive expectations went together with more effort and better results. Positive fantasies did the opposite. Those who fantasised most positively about, for example, a new job, an exam or recovering after an operation on average made less effort and achieved poorer results.

Why? In 2011 Heather Kappes and Oettingen investigated one possible explanation: positive fantasies lowered energy. Participants asked to imagine an ideal future felt less energetic afterwards than those who imagined something neutral, something negative, or who questioned the desired future. The image of already being there gives part of the feeling of having succeeded — without having done anything.

That doesn't mean dreams are dangerous. It means that a dream on its own is not a plan, and that it sometimes gets in the way of one.

Picture the path, not just the goal

In 1999 Lien Pham and Shelley Taylor had first-year university students visualise over five to seven days before an exam. One group pictured getting a good grade. Another pictured how they would study: where they sat, when they did it and how they went about it. Those who pictured the process studied more and got better results, and the effect came through better planning and less anxiety.

That is exactly the step my book calls the most important. Seeing yourself at the computer writing, or lacing up your shoes when it is raining outside, is not a daydream. It is a rehearsal.

Mental contrasting and WOOP

Oettingen's answer to the problem with positive fantasies is not to stop dreaming, but to set the dream against reality. She calls it mental contrasting: you first picture what you wish for and then what stands in the way. In studies from 2001 this led to stronger commitment when the goal was realistic — and to letting go more easily of goals that were not. Both are useful.

Combined with Peter Gollwitzer's if–then plans, which he calls implementation intentions, it becomes a four-step method that Oettingen has named WOOP:

• Wish. Something you want that is challenging but possible, over the coming weeks or months. Put it in a few words.
• Outcome. What is the best thing about reaching it? Picture it for a short while, as vividly as you can.
• Obstacle. What in yourself is most likely to stand in the way? Not the circumstances, but your own habit, feeling or thought. Picture it just as vividly.
• Plan. What will you do when the obstacle appears? Write it as a sentence: if [the obstacle], then [what you will do].

A review of 21 studies, published in 2021, found that the method had a small to moderate effect on reaching goals. The authors point out that the true effect may be somewhat smaller, since studies with weak results are published less often. So it is no miracle. But it is one of the few ways of visualising that has been properly tested, and it takes a few minutes.

Mental practice in sport

The area where visualisation has the longest research tradition is mental practice: going through a movement or a race in your head. A review by James Driskell and colleagues from 1994 found that mental practice improves performance, and that the effect depends on, among other things, the kind of task and how long you practise. A follow-up in 2020 covering studies from the following 24 years found the same thing: a small but clear positive effect.

Two things are worth noticing. The effect is smaller than the stories about top athletes lead you to believe. And mental practice complements physical training, it doesn't replace it. What Phelps did, according to what I recount in the book, was also to practise what he would do when something went wrong — which is very close to if–then thinking.

How to do it

Here is the book's exercise, updated with what the research shows. It takes ten minutes the first time and two minutes a day after that.

1. Choose a goal that is challenging but possible, and that you can influence yourself. "I train three times a week" rather than "I win the race".

2. Picture the outcome — briefly. What is the best thing about reaching it? Let the image be vivid, but don't stop there.

3. Picture the obstacle. What in yourself is the most likely reason it won't happen? Tiredness after work, the thought that there's no point, your phone. See it as clearly as the goal.

4. Write an if–then plan. "If I'm tired when I get home, then I'll change straight away and go out for ten minutes." One sentence is enough.

5. Rehearse the path. Rewind the film to the beginning and see yourself doing the work, including the moment the obstacle appears and you do what you decided.

6. Finish with a first step. The question from the book still applies: what is one small step I can take today? Take it, preferably before you do anything else.

When it is more than that

For someone who lives with a lot of worry, it can be hard to picture obstacles without getting stuck in them. Then it can help to keep the obstacle part short and go straight to the plan. But if you notice that the images in your head torment you more often than they help, or that you can't get started on anything at all, it is not a question of technique. It may be anxiety or low mood, and healthcare is the right first step.

How I work with it

In coaching we use visualisation in the way that has support: we make the goal concrete, find the obstacle that usually wins, and decide what you will do when it appears. The follow-up the week after shows whether the plan held, and if it didn't we adjust the plan instead of blaming willpower. If it is about getting started at all, there is the article on procrastination.

The most important thing

If you take away just one thing: don't just picture yourself arriving. Picture what will stand in the way, and what you will do then.

The dream gives the direction. It is the obstacle and the plan that get you somewhere.

Sources

• Oettingen, G. & Mayer, D. (2002). The motivating function of thinking about the future: Expectations versus fantasies. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83(5), 1198–1212.
• Kappes, H. B. & Oettingen, G. (2011). Positive fantasies about idealized futures sap energy. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 47(4), 719–729.
• Oettingen, G., Pak, H. & Schnetter, K. (2001). Self-regulation of goal setting: Turning free fantasies about the future into binding goals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 80(5), 736–753.
• Gollwitzer, P. M. (1999). Implementation intentions: Strong effects of simple plans. American Psychologist, 54(7), 493–503.
• Wang, G., Wang, Y. & Gai, X. (2021). A meta-analysis of the effects of mental contrasting with implementation intentions on goal attainment. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 565202.
• Pham, L. B. & Taylor, S. E. (1999). From thought to action: Effects of process- versus outcome-based mental simulations on performance. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 25(2), 250–260.
• Driskell, J. E., Copper, C. & Moran, A. (1994). Does mental practice enhance performance? Journal of Applied Psychology, 79(4), 481–492.
• Toth, A. J., McNeill, E., Hayes, K., Moran, A. P. & Campbell, M. (2020). Does mental practice still enhance performance? A 24 year follow-up and meta-analytic replication and extension. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 48, 101672.
• Glännström, M. Välmåendecoach — För en ljusare framtid ("The Wellbeing Coach"), chapter 6: Visualisation.

Best wishes, Mikael GlännströmWellbeing coach, author and father of two