WOOP: the five-minute method that turns a wish into a plan

WOOP stands for Wish, Outcome, Obstacle and Plan. You name something you'd love to happen, picture the best outcome, identify the main obstacle inside you, and then write a simple "if, then" plan for the moment that obstacle appears. It was developed by the psychologist Gabriele Oettingen at New York University and the University of Hamburg, and it's one of the best-evidenced tools in PiViva, which is lovely news given that it takes about five minutes.

Why doesn't positive thinking get you there on its own?

We're often told to visualise success. Picture it, feel it, believe it, and it will come.

There's a snag, though. Gabriele Oettingen spent around twenty years studying what positive fantasies actually do to us, and she found that dreaming about success on its own tends to relax people. Their energy drops, and their effort follows it down, almost as if the brain has had a little taste of the reward and decides it can put its feet up.

So if you've ever spent a Sunday evening imagining the brand new you, and then done very little about it on Monday, please don't be hard on yourself. It's a well-documented effect, you're in very good company, and the reassuring part is that there's a simple way round it.

What is WOOP, and where does it come from?

Oettingen's answer was to pair the fantasy with reality. She called it mental contrasting: you imagine the outcome you want, and then you deliberately turn to look at the obstacle standing in the way.

She then added a piece from her NYU colleague Peter Gollwitzer, called an implementation intention. It's a simple "if, then" plan, along the lines of "if this obstacle shows up, then I'll do this".

Put together, that's WOOP:

• Wish. Something you'd love to happen that's challenging but possible.
• Outcome. The best result, which you let yourself feel for a moment.
• Obstacle. The main one inside you, meaning something you do, think or feel.
• Plan. If the obstacle appears, then I will...

The "if, then" part has strong evidence behind it. In 2006 Gollwitzer and Paschal Sheeran brought together 94 independent tests of these plans, and found a medium-to-large effect on people reaching their goals. WOOP itself has been tested on exercise, diet, study habits and more, so you're in safe hands.

How do you do WOOP in PiViva?

The WOOP tool in PiViva walks you through the four steps one at a time, and the whole thing takes about five minutes, which makes it a lovely exercise for a quiet moment with a cup of coffee.

The step most of us rush is the Obstacle. If you've written "no time", it's worth digging a little deeper, because the real obstacle is usually something more personal, such as "I get home tired and the sofa always wins", or "I worry about looking silly in front of people who are better at it than me". Those are obstacles you can actually plan for, which is a far more hopeful place to be.

Then write your plan as a real "if, then". For example, "if I get home and want to sit down, then I'll put my trainers on before I take my coat off". A specific situation paired with a specific action gives your future self something clear and easy to follow when the moment comes.

What if the obstacle feels too big?

Sometimes WOOP will tell you that a particular wish is best parked for now, and that's a perfectly good result too. Oettingen's research suggests that mental contrasting helps people let go of goals that aren't feasible, which frees up energy and attention for the ones that are.

If the obstacle turns out to be a belief about yourself, you can take it into Limiting Beliefs and look at it more closely. If it's fear, the Fear Audit can help. And if you'd like to make more "if, then" plans for other parts of your life, Implementation Intentions uses the same idea on its own.

Five minutes is a small price for a wish that finally has a plan behind it, and you may be surprised how often that small, honest look at the obstacle is all it takes to get you moving.