There are conflicting opinions about the method of visualizing desires: some believe that it is completely useless - sitting “on the couch” to imagine something, others believe that visualization works on to bring you closer to fulfilling your dreams. There are many explanations for how this works: both at the level of the formation of new neural connections, and at the level of strengthening motivation, as a “right-hemisphere” element of goal setting, the formation of the will to action. I don’t know about you, but for me it’s always (except in early childhood) there were problems with the ability to imagine something vividly enough by closing my eyes, so the visualization method in my case was quite a failure, no matter how hard I tried to imagine, for example, the situation on the plane when flying to South America or the new place of my dream job, although because it hasn't happened yet, and it's not yet known what it would look like. I am even inclined to believe that the visualization method can be harmful to some extent due to the fact that it sets certain expectations about what a fulfilled dream will look like, and this creates the risk of a discrepancy between expectations and reality. Of course, desires can be different. First of all, in terms of its degree of realism. Everyone is at some stage of life where it is possible to approximately estimate and predict where time will lead at this rate: there are certain financial prospects, a more or less established social environment, level of education, the degree of development of certain skills. Therefore, if we proceed from what we have at the moment, we can derive exactly those wishes that are most likely to come true. For the last 3 years, for every New Year, I have been writing a wish list, intuitively feeling that under a favorable set of circumstances (in the absence of objective obstacles), and if I wish, it will most likely be possible to implement them. And every time, 60-70% of the list actually works. But! What about the remaining 30-40%? I noticed that when writing a wish list, there is a different emotional response to each item. When I write something that ultimately does not come true, then at some “pre-intuitive” level it is clear that this will not happen. Why do I call this the "pre-intuitive" level? Intuition, it is usually always about the presence of some feelings: we can be anxious in anticipation or rejoice in anticipation, and at the level of bodily sensations it is clearly clear that there is something there. And this something is turned on when writing down desires, which are realized as a result: there is a charge of potential that requires its disclosure, and the brain is aimed at fulfilling this program. Therefore, in this version, we are more likely talking about the emotionalization of desire. That is, the potential for its implementation is felt at the level of emotions that are expressed in the body when we think about what we want so badly. In the case of “empty” desires, when thinking about their fulfillment, at the emotional level - “tumbleweed” as I would say. Those. at the rational level there is an understanding that it is good to want this. I'll write it down on the list, maybe it will come true. At this level. And at the level of feelings - absolutely zero response. There is no resource, no potential, or it has not yet matured at all, but is somewhere in its infancy. Question: how to learn to want so that an emotional response appears that would turn on the brain for this “program”? I would say that the main thing in this matter is to find honesty with yourself, i.e. understand why I really need it. Here we apply the analysis of desire on the Descartes square, where you need to fill out all 4 blocks as completely as possible point by point: On the one hand, this is a completely rational analysis of your desire, it helps you understand what its advantages are and what you will have to sacrifice, because a very important point is those resources , which we could “throw” into other, more familiar and comfortable activities for us, will have to be turned in the other direction, and there may be uncertainty, risks, etc. All this will be visible in)