WOOP

WOOP stands for Wish, Outcome, Obstacle, Plan. It takes about five minutes, and it's one of the best-evidenced tools in this whole catalogue. Name the wish, something challenging but possible. Picture the best outcome and let yourself feel it for a moment. Then turn and find the obstacle, the one inside you rather than the one out in the world. Finish with an if-then plan. If that obstacle shows up, then this is what I will do. It comes from Gabriele Oettingen, Professor of Psychology at New York University and the University of Hamburg. She spent 20 years studying what positive thinking actually does, and found that imagining success on its own tends to relax people rather than motivate them. Energy drops, effort follows. Pairing the fantasy with the obstacle is what turns it into fuel. She calls it mental contrasting. Add the if-then plan, which comes from Peter Gollwitzer's work, and you get follow-through rates that show up in trials on diet, exercise, study, and drinking. The step people rush is the obstacle. If you've written 'no time', dig again. It is rarely time. Use it whenever a wish feels shaky, or before you commit to something you have abandoned before.