Achieve Your Goals With WOOP

Do you ever struggle to stick to your goals? Discover the WOOP method, a powerful tool that uses obstacles as stepping stones to success.

Discover WOOP, a science-backed goal-setting practice that helps you overcome obstacles and achieve your goals. 

Learn how to apply this simple yet powerful tool to transform your habits and improve your well-being.

Practical links from this episode:

• https://woopmylife.org/
• https://woopmylife.org/en/practice 

We’d love to hear what’s inspiring you! Share your thoughts using the “Send us a text message” feature or email us at practicingconnection@oneop.org.

Transcript

JESSICA BECKENDORF: [00:00:00] Hello. Thanks so much for listening to the Practicing Connection Podcast. I'm Jessica, and I'm flying solo today for the first time ever! I will be rejoined by my co-hosts soon, but today it's just me. And I'll be sharing a practice for goal setting that I have used successfully in the past. It's called WOOP.

That's WOOP, and it stands for Wish, Outcome, Obstacle, Plan. This practice has been instrumental in helping me overcome obstacles and change habits. I come back to it whenever I need to rethink my thinking about an issue. Let me give you an example. I used to forget to pack my lunch. Almost every day, I would rush out the door without a lunch, and very likely without having eaten breakfast [00:01:00] as well, bBut that's another issue for another practice on another day! 

The problem was that this didn't align with my financial goals. I wanted to save money, not spend it every day. And the other problem was that this didn't align with my health goals either. I used it as an excuse to eat fast food or to eat poorly in general,right? 

That food tastes good, right? I really needed to make a change though. So one day I was listening to a podcast episode that highlighted this practice. I remember thinking that the funny name would probably help me remember it, and when I mess up, I could just say, “Whoops,” and try again. I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I chuckled to myself about that very unfunny thought.

I don't recall who was being interviewed on the podcast, this was quite a while ago. But what I learned was that this tool was [00:02:00] backed by research, and that it really helped people with things like changing their behavior and realizing their goals, becoming more physically active, adopting a healthier lifestyle and diet. Taking better care of their own wellbeing.

Exhibiting more pro-social behavior, and improving their performance. It sounded really impressive, so I went to their website to learn more. The website is https://woopmylife.org/, and I'll make sure to have a link for you in the show notes because they've got some really great resources: videos, and even an entire kit for you to use to implement this tool in your work and life.

So WOOP is based in the science of human motivation. It uses the very obstacles that get in our way as the catalyst for achieving our goals. It does that by helping us to imagine what those inner obstacles are. So these are the things that may be [00:03:00] the thoughts and the behaviors that we currently have, that we can change, that are internal to ourselves.

So these are not external obstacles. These are all internal obstacles. So it helps us imagine those, and then create a plan for when those obstacles are happening. What can we do to move through that or to get around it and achieve our goals anyway? 

So let's learn more by getting into the practice and sharing an example.

- break -

Again, WOOP stands for Wish, Outcome, Obstacle and Plan, and you can practice this in a few ways. I like to use WOOP in its shortest version. So on their website they have a kit and there's a worksheet called “WOOP In One Glance” in that kit. That's how I started [00:04:00] using this tool, mostly because I've primarily used this tool to forge new habits, versus making longer term goals.

But it can be used both ways and you can find out more at their website@woopmylife.org. So let's get started. Start with your wish. In three to six words, choose your wish. Choose something that is challenging, but feasible. I've heard things like, “I want to run a marathon,” as being a wish. But my first time practicing whoop, I said, “I wanted to stop eating fast food for lunch.”

I thought that would be challenging, but also feasible. So now the next step is, in three to six words, again, identify what would be the best outcome of fulfilling your wish. My answer was that, “I would feel healthier and more energized,” right? 

So the next step we’ll move on to is, what's the obstacle? [00:05:00] Identify your main inner obstacle that holds you back from fulfilling your wish. So again, you're trying to do this in three to six words, and in my case, it was forgetting to pack my lunch or forgetting to take my lunch with me before I left. That's more than six words, but the word limit is really a guide to help keep you focused.

And then finally, in again, three to six words, note what action you can take to overcome your obstacle. So in this example, I thought it would be a better idea to drive past the fast food restaurants and instead pull into the grocery store parking lot to make up a salad or get some other healthier foods.

Then you'll wanna put it all together like this: So, you're gonna kind of create a little bit of an “If -  then” statement. So “if”: state your obstacle, “then I will”: state your action or thought to overcome your [00:06:00] obstacle. So “if,” obstacle, “then I will,” action. Here's what it sounds like with my example. “If I forget my lunch, then I will go to the grocery store.”

That's it. I am telling you, this practice has been such a helpful tool in my toolbox to help me change behaviors and improve my resilience and relationship with myself. 

That's it for this episode. Thanks so much for joining us, or for joining me today! If you enjoyed this episode, click the share button in your podcast app to share it with a friend.

Do you have a favorite practice you'd like to share with us? Click, “Send us a text message” at the top of the description of this episode. When you click the link, your text messaging app will open and you'll see a seven digit number with the words “do not remove.” Type your message after that and click send.

We'll share your feedback on a future episode. If you're listening on a computer, you can email us at practicing connection@oneop.org instead. We'll be back next [00:07:00] week with a brand new episode. Until then, keep practicing.

CREDITS: The Practicing Connection podcast is a production of OneOp and is supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U. S. Department of Agriculture, and the Office of Military Family Readiness Policy, U. S. Department of Defense, under award number 2023-48770-41333.