An Image of What I Want to Achieve: How Personal Visions Motivate Goal Pursuit

Abstract

A growing body of research emphasizes the importance of personal visions. Yet, so far, empirical research on personal visions is limited and only little is known on how personal visions lead to increased motivation and more successful goal pursuit. We argue that personal visions with their high level of mental imagery are motivationally effective because a) they evoke positive affect, b) vision-evoked positive affect spills over to personal goals derived from them, c) affectively charged personal goals benefit from increased commitment, and d) increased commitment contributes to high goal progress. In a first experiment (N = 128) we found that personal visions and vision-derived goals were more positively associated with positive affect compared to a control group with superordinate goals low in mental imagery. In a second experiment with 323 participants, we replicated our results and further showed that personal visions were positively related to goal progress via vision-evoked positive affect, positive anticipatory affect towards expected goal attainment, and goal commitment. Together the studies suggest that personal visions exert their motivational effects by affectively charging activities related to them. From a practical perspective, our studies highlight the importance of visions as an effective tool in the motivation of work-related behaviors.