“If something is not going the way you want it to, how can you make it happen?”

Aidelisa Gutiérrez
26 jul 2020
2 Min. de lectura

Actualizado: 27 ago 2021

After taking the course “The Science of Wellbeing” offered by Yale University via Coursera and instructed by professor Laurie Santos, two topics caught my attention: nudging and positive thinking. To deepen the understanding of both topics, I purchased the books that were referenced in the course. For the topic of positive thinking, I bought the book “Rethinking Positive Thinking'', by Gabriele Oettingen. In this book the author, also a scientist, shares a technique of mental contrasting, which is what psychologists call a metacognition strategy (thinking about ones thinking).

By using a mental contrasting technique we are able to engage our unconscious mind into understanding the obstacles (the obstacles could be a behavior, an emotion, an obsessive thought or an impulse) that are standing in our way and it allows us to own the excuses we tell ourselves, which might be what impedes us from attaining our goals. In mental contrasting, individuals firstly imagine a desired future or health goal that contrasts 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).

The author came up with an acronym for the mental contrasting technique, called WOOP, which stands for

W-wish, O-outcome, O-obstacle and P-plan. When we start using this technique, a journey of exploration will commence, since it is a process that contributes to self awareness for overcoming, changing or attaining habits. She states that WOOP is a way to program oneself cognitively, as it puts our non conscious mind to work, allowing for change that feels effortless . She also asserts that you will see yourself easily developing new habits, even though new habits are supposed to require considerable practice in order to take root.

Gabriele clarifies that even though the technique is not an alternative to existing health behavior approaches, it is a complement to them. By automating cognition, emotion and behavior, WOOP helps people capitalize better on the positive attitudes and high expectations of success we might have about different goals.

How do you put WOOP to work? You must follow the framework below:

W – identify a wish – what do you want to accomplish?

O – think about the outcome you’d like to see

O – identify obstacles that stand in the way

P – make a plan, so you can surpass them.

I highly recommend this book and the WOOP technique, as it is a way of self-coaching, guiding us to understand that we will attain our goals once we take action.

“If something is not going the way you want it to, how can you make it happen?” is a quote that has become dear to my heart, which gets me mentally unstuck when the going gets though, moving my thoughts from "victim of the circumstances" to "accountable for results" thoughts.

What are you yearning for? Thinking positively about it is not enough to make it happen. Create a plan, visualize it and start moving into the behaviors that will make it happen.