Being positive isn’t enough

About 25 years ago I was introduced to the whole affirmation, visualisation and positive thinking methods and I spent a lot of time and energy investigating them. In the end I concluded that they didn’t really work, at least, they didn’t work for me. Today I read an article in the Harvard Business Review, by Gabriele Oettingen, a professor of psychology at New York University and the University of Hamburg.  She has used scientific rigour and come to the same conclusion. 

However, she has helpfully come up with something that she can show works.  It is called WOOP — Wish, Outcome, Obstacle, Plan.  It works by first being clear about what you want, then exploring the results of achieving that wish.  You then identify the various likely obstacles and then plan how you can over come or neutralise them.  This is not difficult and similar to some work I do with my clients but it is worth exploring and experimenting with.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 3rd, 2014 at 11:03 and is filed under Hints, Tips & Techniques. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.