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Welcome to Part 2 of the Follow-Through Series. Last week, you learned that a strong motivation to achieve a result in the future doesn’t necessarily help you take daily actions to achieve that result. In the moment when you have to exert effort or do something unpleasant, you are likely to feel a strong drive to turn away from that effort in favour of an activity that gives you immediate gratification. This drive is innate and powerful, so you may not even consciously notice that a struggle is going on or that you’ve turned away from the action you intended to take. Today, you’ll learn to do mental contrasting, the first of three techniques to help you follow through on your plans to meditate.

If you missed Part 1 of the Follow-Through Series, you’ll find it here.

Mental contrasting is a technique developed by psychologist Gabriele Oettinger. You can visit her website for more in-depth information and a long list of research papers that provide evidence for the effectiveness of this technique. 

The technique works because it helps your brain make connections between the future goal you want, which can be motivating, and the obstacles you need to overcome to reach the goal. Mental contrasting helps you make the decision that the goal is worth the effort, and that helps you commit.

Of course, here we’re talking specifically about the goal of creating a strong meditation habit, but this technique works with other goals, too.

You’re free to create your own goal, but I have one word of advice: Focus on a habit-creation goal instead of focusing on doing a specific number of minutes of meditation. As I noted in my habit building post, establishing a habit is the hardest part of committing to meditation. It’s best to first create a regular habit using very tiny meditations (such as three mindful breaths or one minute of meditation), then slowly work up to meditating for longer periods of time. Starting slow like this is complementary to the techniques you’re learning in the Follow-Through Series.

Here are some example goals you might like to use:

My goal is to create a regular meditation habit

My goal is to meditate daily

My goal is to do some meditation every day

The technique

The technique involves three steps, which must be completed in the order listed here.

Identifying situations in the past where you’ve succeeded in reaching a goal. This helps boost confidence in your ability to reach the current goal. It’s a crucial step in mental contrasting. It’s important that you believe in your ability to succeed. And you should. I do. As a mindfulness coach, I know that every person is capable of meditating.

Envisioning a positive future, where you’ve successfully reached your goal. You’ll imagine, in as much detail as possible, all the positive things that will happen.

Thinking about the obstacles in the way of reaching your goal. This grounds your vision of the future in the reality of the present, acknowledging that the positive aspects of reaching your goal come only if you commit to applying effort and dealing with hindrances.

Take your time, and be thorough and detailed as you envision each step. The worksheet, below, will help.

Today’s practice: Complete the mental contrasting exercise worksheet