WOOP: A Method To Set And Achieve Goals

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,: 2023

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Looks like we're fasting because there's no food celebrations at all today. That's odd. Today's featured book is the lifelong learner from Peter Hollins. We take an in depth look at the Whoop method. Whoop wop is a goal setting strategy that stands for wish outcome, obstacle and plan. It's a simple but effective way to increase your motivation and achieve your goals. Let's dive right in. Thanks for joining us today. Setting goals is key to any form of learning and personal growth.

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By setting goals, you can focus your energies in the right direction, as well as see clearly how far you have come and what steps still need to be taken. Establishing a timeline for your goals also helps keep you motivated and on track—making sure that nothing slips through the cracks. When a goal is strategically set, it serves as a powerful tool for guiding progress, allowing us to map out our journey and develop our skills along the way. Goals empower us intrinsically with both insight and structure, enabling us to not only build knowledge but foster confidence in ourselves and all we are capable of achieving. Let’s learn how to set and achieve your goals! When you start something with a set goal in mind, it’s natural to be optimistic about the outcome. You’re learning how to surf, and you’re confident you’ll be standing up and coasting through waves in no time. You start taking painting lessons, and you can’t wait to make artwork worth hanging up in your house. Or you bought a bike, and you’re already thinking about all the ways you’re going to ditch all other modes of transportation. Beginning a new task with optimism can be really helpful; it’s certainly better than going into something thinking you’re doomed to fail.

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But positive thinking can only get you so far. Nobody’s perfect, and you’re bound to make a few mistakes on the road to achieving your goals—beyond that point, you will need a lot more than beginner’s enthusiasm to keep you going. You’re going to spend your whole life learning; it’s the foundation for self-improvement. In order to keep yourself learning, though, you need a clear and intelligent strategy. You also need to know exactly what you want. Cultivating these wishes and aims will let you see the progress you’ve made and your future more clearly. In order to commit yourself to lifelong learning, you need to figure out what you’ll be learning in the next year or two. It sounds obvious, but many of us embark on complicated projects of self-improvement without a clear sense of what it is we’re actually trying to achieve in the first place. That’s why it’s important to set goals and to achieve what you set out to do. Even if you don’t achieve your goal, or achieve it only partly, you can still feel good about yourself and your abilities, and you’ll know exactly what you need to do next to keep striving.

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But when you’re first beginning to think about what you want to learn, you only think about the good things you’ll gain. You’re fixated on the outcome, which, although understandable, is precisely what will make you abandon your efforts when you hit that first roadblock. For example, your goal is to lose weight. The thing that inspires you to embark on this goal is fast-forwarding to that glorious moment at the end, when you’re feeling light and healthy and proud of yourself. But when the number on the scale is stubbornly refusing to move for the third week in a row, it’s hard to tap into those same positive feelings that got you inspired to begin with; instead, you focus on the present negative feelings and tell yourself that dieting makes you miserable and that exercising doesn’t work. And you give up on your plan. The problem wasn’t that the scale didn’t budge for three weeks—the problem was that you were unprepared to deal with the fact that change takes time. Because your head was filled with all the good feelings of what life would look like after your goal was reached, you actually made yourself less resilient to the challenges inherent to the process before you met your goal. In other words, your optimism actually worked to sabotage you.

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ambitions (Fritzsche et al.,: 2016

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fe, too (Christiansen et al.,: 2010

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Wish: Figuring Out Ambitions and Setting Goals Ask yourself what you want to achieve. Maybe a lot comes to mind—you want to be a better cook, you want to buy a new computer, you want to learn a new language. All of these are great things to strive for, but you just need to focus on one pursuit for now. There will be plenty of time in your life to master certain skills; it’s best just to keep your sights on a single goal at a time. The first part of the WOOP method is the wish. Let’s say you settle on learning a new language. You’ve always felt that picking up some Spanish would be useful, and you’ve kind of missed studying something. You like to push yourself, and you know that it’s important to keep learning new things throughout your life. You also recognize that foreign languages are pretty valuable.

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Learning Spanish will take time, though, especially if you want to become fluent or even just conversational. You need to get specific when you’re identifying what your wish is. But be careful: If you set the bar too high, you might be setting yourself up for failure. That’s because you will be increasing the distance between where you are now and where you want to be—and seeing how big this distance is can be intimidating and overwhelming, causing you to give up. That’s not fair to yourself—ambition is great, but you need to be realistic. Time frames can help, but they’re not necessary for the WOOP method to work. You don’t need to set an exact deadline. If your wish is to learn Spanish and you’re starting from scratch, think about aiming for a set number of words you want to have memorized. Or you could buy a workbook online and push yourself to finish a certain number of pages. You need to make sure that your wish is specific and achievable and that you’ll know when you complete it. “Getting better at Spanish” is not specific enough; there’s not really a clear benchmark for knowing that your Spanish has improved.

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“Memorizing two hundred words in Spanish,” meanwhile, is very specific. If you want to accomplish this in a month, you can add in that timeline.You are not keeping your goals modest and achievable because you are not ambitious; instead, you are taking slow and steady steps toward your goal rather than making grand plans and expecting quantum leaps—then getting demoralized when you, of course, don’t reach that goal overnight. Once you have a sure wish—one that you’ll be able to recognize when it’s achieved—then you’ll know exactly what to do. Outcome: Understanding What’s to Come You did it! You learned the two hundred words that you said you wanted to learn. You made flashcards, you practiced regularly, and now when you walk down the street, you can see that the stop sign is rojo, and the coches on the road are going way too fast. Try to imagine that moment. The next step in the WOOP method is the outcome, which relies on a lot of visualization. You have to be able to fast forward in time and see yourself having achieved your goal. Think about what your life will be like when you’ve done what you set out to do.

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What would the best outcome be? How do you think you’ll feel? Visualizing your outcome enables you to understand better why it is you want to fulfill this particular wish. Specificity is super important in this step, too. You won’t be nearly as excited to follow through with your plans if you only have a vague idea of what that accomplishment will feel like or how your life will improve. When you can really see how something will make your life better, the prospect of learning about a new topic or learning how to do a new task will make you feel much more motivated. If somebody really wants to learn how to knit, a good goal for them would be to knit a certain item—even something pretty simple, like a scarf. That person could then think about making a cozy scarf for themselves, wearing it out in winter, feeling immensely proud for learning how to create clothing instead of just going to the store for something new. They’ll have mastered a pattern to make an article of clothing, which requires a lot of hours spent making stitches work together. It’s more of an undertaking than some people realize, and it might not always go well. But, as we’ve already seen, this part of the WOOP framework may be relatively easy, and you may have already thoroughly imagined the end result.

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In that case, it’s important to visualize the drawbacks of this outcome, too; their hands might feel kind of cramped after all that work, or they find that the scarf they knitted really isn’t as attractive as something they could find on the rack at a department store. They might finish the project and feel good about having completed one article of clothing, but they might not feel comfortable out and about, wearing a scarf with some lumps and flaws. Similarly, you might want to consider the way you’re thinking about the outcome. Perhaps you make the scarf and feel immensely proud of your creative efforts, but discover in real life that wearing the thing actually brings you little joy. You thought it would be great to walk around in this scarf, but somehow when you were done, real life didn’t quite feel like how you imagined. Has this ever happened to you? It’s usually because you didn’t pay enough close attention to how you visualized the outcome. You need to honestly ask why a goal appeals to you, and what you’re imagining you will achieve from it. Does the scarf goal represent mastery at a craft? Or is it that you want others to compliment your unique style?

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Or do you like the idea of being sustainable and not buying fast fashion? Try to clearly understand your psychological motivations. Memorizing a set number of words in Spanish might feel great for a while, but you might start to feel like you still have so far to go before you really begin to understand the language. You’ll have to keep learning many more words and grammar rules. Becoming at least conversational in Spanish would mean being able to talk to Spanish speakers with relative ease and understand Spanish-language music and movies. So, in this case, the goal is a necessary one, but it’s not sufficient. You need to keep going. Imagining the different elements of your outcome—both benefits and drawbacks—helps to make the visualization richer. And the richer your visualization, the more control and mastery you have over its manifestation in reality.

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f expectations (Krott et al.,: 2018

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We need optimism but also to realize that achieving any ambition won’t be an easy task. This is important: The task WILL be difficult. Sometimes the sheer recognition of this fact can be an insurmountable obstacle for people who set out to accomplish something. Maybe your obstacles are internal. Perhaps you’ve never been very good at languages in the past, so while you want to study Spanish, you feel like it won’t come naturally to you. It’s just not something you have an aptitude for. Or perhaps you do have some skill in learning languages, but you have a lot of difficulty with time management. The idea of regularly setting aside time to memorize a bunch of words feels overwhelming. You struggle with your schedule enough as is! And there can be external obstacles to your plans, too.

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You’re not great with managing your time, and you also just don’t have a lot of free time, between work and chores and family life. You think that taking classes would be ideal—you’d have an obligation to show up, given that you have to get your money’s worth—but it’s too expensive for you at the moment. But whatever your obstacles are, they will also be more destructive if you are unaware of them and do nothing to anticipate and prepare for them. If you are trying to lose weight, you might fail to take into account the fact that your office goes out for lunch every Friday, and they tend to eat extremely tempting junk food. If you simply forget about this obstacle, by the time Friday rolls around and you’re handed a menu, your plan is already derailed. You binge on loads of junk food, and your goal is over before it starts. But if you had taken the time to carefully visualize everything that could possibly stand in your way, you would have seen the Friday lunchtime temptation from a mile away and would have made a plan on Thursday to avoid it. Then, you would have stayed on track. If you don’t grasp that things won’t always go the way you planned, you’ll be much more likely to quit when trouble actually emerges.

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This is the central problem with positive thinking—everything can be rosy and blissful in your imagination, but real life inevitably intervenes. How will you cope with that? Truthfully, the answer is that many of us give up in frustration! In the heat of the moment, your rosy goal evaporates into nothing, and the double cheeseburger with fries and the chocolate cake for dessert suddenly seem like a much better idea. The WOOP method helps you encounter struggles head-on, and with conscious awareness so you’re much more likely to succeed in your goals. Plan: Finding Strategies to Overcome Errors So you know now that everything’s not going to go swimmingly. If this all seems aimed to make you throw in the towel early, don’t worry. Everything takes effort; that’s what the WOOP method emphasizes. You’re going to be learning and working on yourself for the rest of your life. It’s important to recognize that it’s not going to be easy all the time.

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The sooner you acknowledge this, the sooner you can work around it—and that’s empowering. The final step of the WOOP method teaches you to come up with a plan. Specifically, you should frame this as an “if-then plan." If something gets in your way, then you’ll figure out how to overcome it. Sometimes, it’s valuable to simply be aware of the fact that struggling is not actually a problem. How many of us are completely confused and enraged when things don’t go according to plan? But struggling with a project is not a sign that something is wrong—in fact, it’s a sign that we’re growing, learning, and changing! You’ve already visualized what will happen to you if you meet your goal. And you’ve visualized potential hurdles coming from both yourself and the world at large.

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If you’re still determined to succeed—and you should be!—then you now have to imagine what you’ll do if things do start to go south. If you’re trying to study Spanish and you find that you don’t think you have enough time to put in the work needed to memorize your vocabulary, what will you do? Only picturing the happiness you’ll feel when you learn the words you wanted to learn could make you give up when you realize that it actually takes effort to succeed. But with the WOOP method, you’ll have prepared for this scenario. You already know that you’re not great at managing your time. Ask yourself: “If I find that I’m not organizing my time well to study, what will I do?" You could find ways to squeeze Spanish study into unoccupied parts of your day. Maybe you could listen to some audio review on your commute home from work. Instead of scrolling through your phone when you first wake up, find an app that lets you make flash cards, and review those.

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Look for a partner who will practice with you, someone you know will stick to a schedule. Once you’ve figured out your tactic, clearly articulate your if-then plan. If you find yourself running out of time to practice Spanish, then you’ll look through vocab words on your phone first thing in the morning. If you feel like you can’t manage your time at all, then find a friend to practice with you. If you’re struggling to find time to study a text, then you can look for podcasts or other audio resources. If you can’t quite motivate yourself, then give yourself some small rewards after a task. Make sure that the plan will fit into your lifestyle—if you’re not someone who checks their phone first thing in the morning, the former example probably won’t suit you. You have to look for foolproof ways that you know will lead to success. These contingency plans will really help you meet the expectations you set for yourself.

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As with previous steps, visualization is key. Imagine implementing the plan you’re making for yourself. What will it feel like to wake up every day and practice this new skill? Will you go through the day much more relaxed, knowing that you’ve already accomplished a task you’d been struggling with? You can even write your plan down in the if-then style if you think that this could help you later on. At the very least, repeat it a few times to drill it home: “If I’m not organizing my time well enough to study Spanish, I’ll look at my flash cards right when I wake up." Use your own wish and potential obstacle to fill in the formula, of course. You’ll find that going in with this type of preparation will make you feel much more confident at the start of your practice. And when you do start to slip, you’ll know what to do. Thank you for listening to The Science of Self.

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This podcast has been brought to you by Newton Media Group. Check us out@newtonmg.com and also check out the author, Peterhollins at bitley. Peterhollins. We'll recap today's episode in just a moment. But first, let's take a look at a couple holidays today that we didn't mention at the top of the show. Have you heard the phrase Name your poison? Today is national name your Poison Day. Thought about putting this on the lunch menu, but it didn't quite seem right. This day celebrates our ability to choose the poison that will be least harmful to us.

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It celebrates our ability to make choices and our free will. It's also national UPSEE Daisy day. This is a quirky holiday that encourages you to embrace positivity and usher brightness into your life. And those two holidays kind of go along with the general theme of this podcast and the information that we bring to you from Peter Holland's on improving your life. Let's recap today's episode. Whoop Wish, Outcome, Obstacle and Plan is a goal setting strategy that can help you achieve your goals. It's based on the idea that by thinking about your goal in detail, visualizing the outcome, and planning for obstacles, you'll be more motivated to succeed. Here's how to use the Whoop Method wish what do you want to achieve? Outcome imagine what it will feel like when you achieve your goal obstacle.

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What obstacles might stand in your way? And plan what can you do to overcome the obstacles? The Boot Method is a simple but effective way to set and achieve your goals. Give it a try and see how it works for you. Some additional tips for using the Whoop Method write down your Whoop statements. This will help you remember them and stay on track. Share those statements with someone you trust. This will provide you with accountability and support. Review your Whoop statements regularly and make adjustments as needed.

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ct Frank Lloyd Wright back in: 1867