"There's a robust body of research that demonstrates the power of negative thinking.

Mental contrasting is the process of imagining the obstacles that might lie along the route to your destination. Anticipating the ways things might go wrong on the path to achieving your goals helps you more successfully reach your destination.

For example, amongst people on a program trying to lose at least 50 pounds, those who imagined the ways in which they might fail lost 26 pounds more on average than those who focused on positive visualisation alone.

Imagining success affirms your sense of competence and ability to achieve your goals. Positive visualisation gives you a taste of the emotional high you actually get from actually succeeding.

On the flip side, imagining failure is emotionally similar to actually failing.

The temporary discomfort from imagining failure is worth it, because embracing that discomfort makes it more likely that you'll experience success.

Mental pain leads to real-world gains."