Powerful ideas from top nonfiction
Try Blinkist to get the key ideas from 7,500+ bestselling nonfiction titles and podcasts. Listen or read in just 15 minutes.
Get started
Blink 3 of 8 - The 5 AM Club
by Robin Sharma
Listen to the Intro
Rethinking Positive Thinking summary
Gabriele Oettingen
Inside the New Science of Motivation
14 mins
Brief summary
Rethinking Positive Thinking challenges the conventional notion of positive thinking. Author Gabriele Oettingen introduces mental contrasting, a practical strategy that combines envisioning positive outcomes with realistic obstacle assessment to achieve meaningful goals.
Topics
Table of Contents
Rethinking Positive Thinking
Summary of 5 key ideas
Audio & text in the Blinkist app
Key idea 1 of 5
The positive thinking trap
Dream big, they say. Visualize your best life; picture yourself crushing your goals; imagine every detail of your future. Well, here’s a twist: twenty years of research suggests this strategy might be exactly what’s holding us back.
The evidence is both fascinating and a bit unsettling. One study followed a group of women trying to lose weight. You might think the ones who harnessed their imagination – who spent time visualizing themselves looking slim – would be more motivated. Instead, they lost 24 pounds less than those who didn’t indulge in these rosy visions.
The same pattern showed up everywhere researchers looked. A 1988 study of job seekers found that those who frequently imagined themselves in their dream positions ended up sending out fewer applications and landing lower-paying jobs. In another study, college students who daydreamed about romantic connections were less likely to actually ask someone out.
What makes these and other study findings so compelling isn’t just their consistency – it’s how carefully they were verified. When some researchers studied effects on academic performance, they didn’t just ask students how they were doing; they tracked actual grades. When they looked at recovery from hip surgery, they brought in physical therapists who knew nothing about the study to measure patient progress.
Time after time, across months and years of follow-up, the pattern held: The more people indulged in idealized visions of the future, the less they achieved in reality.
Why?
Think of it like watching a movie trailer versus actually making a film. The trailer gives you some of the emotional payoff – the excitement, the triumph, the satisfaction – without any of the grueling work of production. Our brains, it seems, can fall for a similar trick. When we spend time fantasizing about our goals, we get a little hit of pleasure – one that feels nice, but can actually sap our drive to pursue our goals in real life.
It’s not that optimism itself is bad – but rather there’s a world of difference between pure fantasy and positive expectations based on experience. When we let ourselves get lost in those perfect, polished daydreams, we can end up undermining the very things we’re dreaming about.
Want to see all full key ideas from Rethinking Positive Thinking?
Key ideas in Rethinking Positive Thinking
More knowledge in less time
Read or listen
Get the key ideas from nonfiction bestsellers in minutes, not hours.
Find your next read
Get book lists curated by experts and personalized recommendations.
Shortcasts New
We’ve teamed up with podcast creators to bring you key insights from podcasts.
What is Rethinking Positive Thinking about?
Rethinking Positive Thinking (2014) challenges the widespread belief that positive thinking alone leads to success. It introduces a new approach called mental contrasting, which combines optimistic dreaming with a clear-eyed view of obstacles, allowing people to achieve their goals more effectively.
Who should read Rethinking Positive Thinking?
- Self-help enthusiasts who feel stuck
- Goal-setters frustrated by lack of progress despite positive attitudes
- Coaches seeking evidence-based techniques for their clients
Categories with Rethinking Positive Thinking
Book summaries like Rethinking Positive Thinking
People ❤️ Blinkist
Sven O.
It's highly addictive to get core insights on personally relevant topics without repetition or triviality. Added to that the apps ability to suggest kindred interests opens up a foundation of knowledge.
Thi Viet Quynh N.
Great app. Good selection of book summaries you can read or listen to while commuting. Instead of scrolling through your social media news feed, this is a much better way to spend your spare time in my opinion.
Jonathan A.
Life changing. The concept of being able to grasp a book's main point in such a short time truly opens multiple opportunities to grow every area of your life at a faster rate.
Renee D.
Great app. Addicting. Perfect for wait times, morning coffee, evening before bed. Extremely well written, thorough, easy to use.
People also liked these summaries
4.7 Stars
Average ratings on iOS and Google Play
36 Million
Downloads on all platforms
10+ years
Experience igniting personal growth