The simple question is , can I use this finish line strategy to make the start line a goal and get my system more engaged or motivated ? And is there any physiology or physiological changes , I should say to reflect the idea that maybe just visually focusing on the start line would actually get me more excited as opposed to make me less excited to engage in effort . There's certainly vision science that's tied up in that very first stage of of goal setting , like identifying what that goal is in the first place and taking those first steps , a lot of people's go to strategies that involve vision are are vision boards or dream boards or , you know , post it notes , right ?
I just accomplished something pretty major . I actually now don't have the physiological resources at the ready to take the first step right now to do something about that . So , so that was a pretty monumental um uh finding for motivation scientists to understand that like creating these dream boards , these vision boards or to do this might actually backfire because it in and of itself is the creation of a goal and the satisfaction of the goal .
Now that can be the going out for a walk , going out for a run , hitting the gym , it can also be things like doing math problems , right ? Even if it's , it's something that's just mental systolic blood pressure actually goes up in anticipation of your body or your mind needing to do something , taking the first steps on a goal . So then it is , it helps us to understand of like , OK , if I've just created this dream board , this vision board and put myself psychologically in that space of a goal , satisfied , why is it bad that blood pressure goes down ?
I have experienced it , even if just in an imaginary way , I've had that positive experience of , of thinking about how great my life is going to be when I get this thing done and they start to sort of rest on their laurels . She's actually measured systolic blood pressure and heart rate and they found that people who do that , who go through that experience of visualizing how great my life will be when I get Xy and Z done . Their , their systolic blood pressure , the bottom number on your blood pressure reading decreases .
So maybe I should just like think about how awesome my life will be when I get my bucket , my bucket list done . But motivation scientists know that systolic blood pressure is actually an indicator of our body's readiness to get up and act to do something . Now that can be the going out for a walk , going out for a run , hitting the gym , it can also be things like doing math problems , right ?
