Years ago, as a business reporter, I interviewed an advertising manager. I was there to ask about the latest campaign. But when I sat down, he wanted to talk about writing novels.
He spent hours meeting with clients(客户), but he dreamed of being a novelist instead. I remember thinking: Sure, everybody dreams to be a novelist. Who doesn't?
A decade later, however, I was surprised to see the same person on TV, holding up his new book. James Patterson had developed into a best-selling author. He has since published more than 100 New York Times best sellers.
"I never thought of myself as an advertising person," he told me when I asked how he'd done it. "I always planned to be a writer. " Mr. Patterson's ability to sec himself as a writer shows a term(术语) "possible selves. " It describes how people envision their futures: what they may become, or want to become, etc.
The term, created in 1986 by the social psychologists Hazel Markus and Paula Nurius,grew out of research on self-concept and self-perception(自我知觉). While self-concepts, like "I am a kind person" or "I am a good parent", are based on the present, the researchers found that people are also influenced by possible selves - what they might become in the future and how they might change.
These possible selves,both positive and negative,are closely related to motivation (动机). In a small study, when young adults were made to envision themselves as either regular exercisers (hoped-for selves) or inactive (feared selves),both groups exercised more in the weeks afterward. But researchers have found that imagining positive possible selves can improve health and reduce depression by holding out the hope for a better future.
A possible self can help you realize daydreams, which seem to be unrealistic, "if you build a bridge from your ‘now' self to the possible self," Dr. Markus said. But how do we build that bridge?
