“The trouble with not having a goal is that you can spend your life running up and down the field and never score.” – Bill Copeland
According to U.S. News & World Report, 80% of New Year's resolutions fail by February. So rather than setting yourself up for failure, set yourself up for success with one goal – to intentionally set goals with a roadmap to achieve them. No resolutions. Goals. And not too many.
Often referenced in organizational goal setting, the acronym SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-Bound. There are several resources on SMART goals. The Hubspot blog offers a free template and examples to get you started. While SMART goals address the attributes of goals, individual motivation and behavior change are required to achieve goals.
Based on 20 years of motivational research on Mental Contrasting and Implementation Intentions (MCII) by Gabriele Oettingen and Peter Gollwitzer, WOOP (Wish, Outcome, Obstacle, Plan) is a model that can lead you through achieving your goals by identifying obstacles as a key strategy.
Most of our obstacles are internal rather than external. When we identify those internal obstacles, we can develop a plan to overcome them and achieve our goals. In other words, get out of your own way. It’s not other people or circumstances, it’s you and your perception. When we shift our energy from trying to change others or circumstances, we can focus on the only thing we can change – YOU!
In her book Rethinking Positive Thinking, Oettingen says “the solution isn’t to do away with dreaming and positive thinking. Rather, it’s making the most of our fantasies by brushing them up against the very thing most of us are taught to ignore or diminish: the obstacles that stand in our way.”
According to research, “mental contrasting is a self-regulation strategy that is required for strong goal commitment. In mental contrasting, individuals firstly imagine a desired future or health goal that contrasted with the reality proceeding the goal state, which after reflection is viewed as an obstacle (Oettingen et al. J Pers Soc Psychol 80:736–753, 2001). Mentally contrasting a positive future with reality enables individuals to translate positive attitudes and high efficacy into strong goal commitment.”
The Woopmylife website has a toolkit and mobile app that you can download as well. Here’s the exercise for the WOOP model:
Wish: What is your wish?
Is this wish dear to you?
Is it feasible?
Is it challenging?
Did you summarize it in 3-6 words?
Outcome: What is the best outcome?
Is it a truly fulfilling outcome?
Did you summarize it in 3-6 words?
Did you take enough time to imagine this best outcome?
If not: close your eyes and imagine the best outcome. Imagine it fully.
Obstacle: What is your main inner obstacle?
Is your obstacle an inner obstacle?
Is it a true inner obstacle or just an excuse? Think about it more deeply!
Did you summarize it in 3-6 words?
Did you take enough time to imagine your main obstacle?
If not: close your eyes and imagine your main obstacle. Imagine it fully.
Plan: What is your plan?
Did you find an effective action or thought to overcome your obstacle?
Did you summarize it in 3-6 words?
Check if the plan has the following structure:
“If [obstacle], then I will [action to overcome obstacle]”
If not: Do the if-then plan again.
In the next week, I will be working my way through the WOOP process to plan for a strong 2020. I’ve dubbed next year – 20/20 vision and look forward to being SMART about my goals and where I invest my time and attention. As Gretchen Rubin says “the days are long and the years are short.” Being intentional, focused with our finite resource of time with goals and daily joy as the compass, we arrive at the destination we’ve defined, not others.
Be open to change, write down goals with actions attached, change your self-narrative (that loud inner critic who’s wrong) and overcome obstacles to create a meaningful and fulfilling life. Einstein said “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.”
Enough with resolutions. Embrace this “preseason” to the new year, celebrate your many blessings and set goals (and actions) for your best year yet.
Time to WOOP it up!