The best-possible-self exercise

Regularly write a vivid picture of your life going as well as it realistically could.

Why it works

Imagining and writing a detailed best-possible future does two things: it directs attention toward goals and possibilities the pessimistic mind filters out, and it builds positive expectancy by making a good outcome concrete and reachable rather than abstract. Concreteness is what turns vague hope into motivating optimism.

How to do it

1. Pick a life domain and write, for several minutes, a vivid account of it going as well as realistically possible.
2. Be concrete and sensory — describe the specific day, not a slogan.
3. Repeat over several sessions; the practice compounds with repetition.

Evidence

The best-possible-self writing intervention has randomized-trial support for raising positive affect and optimism, including in meta-analytic reviews of positive-psychology interventions, with effects that are real but generally modest. A controlled two-week trial found that repeatedly imagining a best possible self measurably increased dispositional optimism, showing the effect can accrue over a short course of practice. (rct)

Effects are modest and can fade without repetition; a purely fantastical version risks the motivation-sapping effect of positive fantasy.

Sources

• King (2001), best-possible-self writing; Malouff & Schutte (2017), meta-analysis of best-possible-self interventions
• King, L. A. (2001). The health benefits of writing about life goals. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 27(7), 798–807.
• Meevissen, Y. M. C., Peters, M. L., & Alberts, H. J. E. M. (2011). Become more optimistic by imagining a best possible self: Effects of a two week intervention. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 42(3), 371–378.
• Malouff, J. M., & Schutte, N. S. (2017). Can psychological interventions increase optimism? A meta-analysis. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 12(6), 594–604.

Common mistake

Writing an unrealistic fantasy disconnected from any path to get there. Pure outcome fantasy can reduce drive; keep the best-possible self ambitious but reachable.