WOOP

You have stuff you know you should be doing. But it doesn’t get done. You need to go from dreaming to doing — but it’s hard.

You want to accomplish more at work, hit the gym, get a new job or study harder at school… but it’s not happening.

What gets you going when you’re not determined to reach those longer term goals?

There’s a solution that can help you not only make change easier, but boost determination. What’s the secret?

WOOP.

Yes, WOOP. It’s an acronym for 4 steps to achieving any goal based on research by Gabriele Oettingen:

Wish
Outcome
Obstacle
Plan

Can a method with the silliest name in social science really work? Yeah.

Do you want to go from dreamer to do-er? Try it now:

Wish: What do you dream of achieving in the future?
Outcome: Be specific. What form will that result take?
Obstacles: What’s in the way?
Plan: When that obstacle comes what will you do about it? “If ____ happens, then I will _____.”

Can you see how this takes simple dreaming and puts you on a path to getting what you want?

There are three categories of people: the person who goes into the office, puts his feet up on his desk, and dreams for 12 hours; the person who arrives at 5 A.M. and works 16 hours, never once stopping to dream; and the person who puts his feet up, dreams for one hour, then does something about those dreams – Steven J. Ross