Consider it, achieve it.
That is the important thing to success, based on a recent study from the University of Essex published in The Times. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
Researchers have found that hope, positive perceptions, and a way of control end in a greater desire for achievement.
The study involved over 1,000 students from 4 different countries – the US, UK, Germany and Canada – and checked out their reactions and emotional reasoning within the face of difficult circumstances.
Scientists have investigated whether people participating in a typical performance-based challenge — resembling completing a task or taking a test — experience certainly one of the 12 “achievement emotions.” Positive emotions included joy, rest, hope, confidence, pride, and relief, while negative emotions included anger, boredom, anxiety, hopelessness, shame/guilt, and disappointment.
Participants then accomplished a questionnaire indicating how they felt in certain situations, resembling attending classes and studying. That they had to rank their feelings concerning the task with responses resembling “I enjoy doing my job”, “I hope I can do my job well”, “Doing my job irritates me”, and “I worry that I would fail .
Negative feelings resembling anxiety and anger have been found to act as task performance stimulants, as do joy and hope. However the downside to negative motivation is that dark thoughts can self-sabotage, resulting in a scarcity of strategy and stress-related ailments like headaches, backaches, and lack of sleep, the authors wrote.
“Interestingly, we found that feelings like anxiety and anger can sometimes motivate us more than pleasure or rest. Nevertheless, despite its energizing power, anxiety can result in mental health problems, impair immune system function and result in a decline in performance in the long term,” Reinhard Pekrun, the study’s lead writer and professor on the Essex Department of Psychology, said in an announcement.
Indeed, the findings suggest that if two students of equal academic ability took the test, the one with higher hopes would rating higher.
“While the model could seem abstract at first glance, it shows how the emotion of accomplishment pertains to extremely vital parts of our lives and can determine how we perform in interviews, tests and other stressful situations,” Pekrun said.
Separate research suggests that optimistic pondering can have myriad health advantages. Scientists say that pondering hopeful can extend life, lower rates of depression, improve cardiovascular health and increase resistance to disease, based on the Mayo Clinic.
“Overall, hope was the healthiest and best technique to achieve success and promote long-term happiness,” Pekrun said.