WOOP: Why Picturing the Obstacle Helps You Reach the Goal

In a study published in 1991, psychologist Gabriele Oettingen reported a simple experiment with women enrolled in a weight loss program. Before the program started, the researchers asked them to imagine how things would go. The women whose fantasies were the most glowing, slim and effortless and admired, lost less weight over the following year than the women whose imagined futures were more mixed and realistic. Later she found similar results with students hoping for dates and patients recovering from hip surgery.

That was not what she expected. It led to two decades of research and a technique she named WOOP, short for Wish, Outcome, Obstacle, Plan. If you work with intentions, vision boards, or visualization, it is worth knowing, because it keeps the hopeful part and adds the part that gets you moving.

Why pure positive thinking can backfire

In her book Rethinking Positive Thinking, Oettingen describes experiments in which people who spent time picturing an ideal outcome showed lower energy afterward, measured in some studies by systolic blood pressure. Her interpretation is that the mind partly treats a vivid fantasy as if it has already happened. You feel a little of the reward, and the urge to work for it softens.

None of this means hope is bad. It means hope alone tends to stop one step short.

Mental contrasting

The fix she studied is called mental contrasting. You picture the outcome you want, then you deliberately picture the main thing inside you that stands in the way. Not the economy or the weather, but your own habit, fear, or feeling. Holding both images side by side seems to help people decide whether a goal is worth pursuing and, if it is, to commit more energy to it.

Her colleague and husband, psychologist Peter Gollwitzer, had separately studied if then plans, which he called implementation intentions. Combining the two gave the final step of WOOP.

The four steps

Set aside five quiet minutes. Close your eyes if that helps.

1. Wish. Name one wish that is challenging but possible in a set period, like the next four weeks. Keep it to a few words. "Finish the first chapter."
2. Outcome. Imagine the best result of reaching it. How would you feel? Let yourself see it for a minute.
3. Obstacle. Now ask what in you is most likely to stop you. Be specific. "I open my phone the moment the writing gets hard."
4. Plan. Write an if then sentence. "If I reach for my phone while writing, then I will put it in the other room and write one more sentence."

That is the whole method. It is short on purpose, so you can repeat it daily or weekly.

How it fits a manifestation practice

Many people already spend time on the Wish and Outcome steps through visualization, gratitude, or a vision board. WOOP adds the honest middle. You might be thinking that naming the obstacle invites negativity. In Oettingen's studies it did the opposite. People felt more ready to act, because they had a plan for the exact moment they used to give up.

You can add it to what you already do:

• After a visualization session, spend one extra minute naming the inner obstacle and writing your if then plan.
• On a vision board, add a small card on the back with your obstacle and plan for the main image.
• In a journal, keep a weekly WOOP for one wish and review last week's plan before writing a new one.

What the research does and does not say

Mental contrasting has been tested in many experiments, with students, patients, and working adults, across goals like exercise, diet, studying, and relationships. Results are generally positive but vary in size, and like most psychology findings, some effects have been smaller in later replications. WOOP is a planning tool, not a guarantee, and it works best for goals that depend largely on your own behavior.

It is also useful for letting go. Sometimes, after honestly picturing the obstacle, people realize the wish is not worth it right now. That clarity is a result too.

Your next step: pick one wish for the next four weeks and do a full WOOP tonight, written down, in under five minutes. Put the if then sentence somewhere you will see it at the moment the obstacle usually shows up.

Sources

• WOOP my life, The science behind WOOP
• Gabriele Oettingen, Rethinking Positive Thinking: Inside the New Science of Motivation (Current, 2014)
• Oettingen, G. and Wadden, T. A. (1991), Expectation, fantasy, and weight loss: Is the impact of positive thinking always positive?, Cognitive Therapy and Research

Image: Woman writing on a notebook with a pen, Kristin Hardwick. CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.