Coaching practices for Woop Wish Outcome Obstacle Plan After a Setback

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Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?

  • I did the whole exercise once for a big goal and it helped, then never touched it again — and now every new thing I want, I’m back to just daydreaming about it.
  • I know exactly what trips me up, but in the heat of the moment I freeze and fall back into the same pattern because I haven’t decided ahead of time what to do instead
  • I get genuinely fired up about a goal and then keep falling at the exact same internal hurdle
  • I have the wish picked out but it still feels flat and far away on paper
  • I’ve tried this dreaming-and-planning thing in bits and pieces in my head and it never takes

Practices that may help

  1. WOOP: Wish, Outcome, Obstacle, Plan
    WOOP — Wish, Outcome, Obstacle, Plan — is Gabriele Oettingen’s science-based goal strategy: you picture the best outcome, then deliberately confront the inner obstacle in your way, and pair it with an if-then plan. Unlike pure positive thinking, WOOP combines mental contrasting with implementation intentions, and both halves have genuine support from randomized trials.
  2. Run WOOP as a quick repeatable routine
    Use the full four-step sequence regularly — it is a few minutes, designed to be reused.
    WOOP: Wish, Outcome, Obstacle, Plan
  3. Plan — make an if-then plan for the obstacle
    Pre-decide your response: "If [obstacle], then I will [effective action]."
    WOOP: Wish, Outcome, Obstacle, Plan
  4. Map the obstacles: WOOP your life-crafting goals
    For each goal, identify the most likely internal obstacle and plan your response before you need it.
    The Life Crafting Intervention: Scripting Your Future Self
  5. Vividly imagine the best outcome of achieving your wish
    Spend 2–3 minutes imagining in full sensory detail how it will feel when the wish is fulfilled.
    Mental Contrasting and WOOP
  6. Run the full WOOP sequence — not just parts of it
    WOOP works as a sequence; running only the wish and outcome steps (pure positive visualization) is not WOOP and may be counterproductive.
    Mental Contrasting and WOOP
  7. Form an if-then plan linking the obstacle to a specific response
    "If [obstacle occurs], then I will [specific action]" — this plan is what converts mental contrasting into behavior change.
    Mental Contrasting and WOOP
  8. Wish — name a meaningful, challenging goal
    Pick one wish that is hard but feasible, and that genuinely matters to you.
    WOOP: Wish, Outcome, Obstacle, Plan
  9. Outcome — vividly imagine the best result
    Picture the best outcome of fulfilling the wish, and feel what it would be like.
    WOOP: Wish, Outcome, Obstacle, Plan
  10. Find the advantage inside the obstacle
    Ask what this obstacle makes possible that nothing else would — the way through is often in it.
    The Obstacle Is the Way, in Practice

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