HOW TO TURN INSPIRATION INTO ACTION

In 2014, Gabriele Oettingen, a psychology professor at New York University and the University of Hamburg, published the book Rethinking Positive Thinking: Inside the New Science of Motivation, which offers a new approach to dream fulfillment. Interested in decoding society’s obsession with positive thinking, Oettingen discovered that people who were positively dreaming about losing weight lost fewer pounds over both short- and long-term periods; students who fantasized about getting together with their crushes were less likely to do so; and the more positive university graduates were about finding jobs, the fewer job offers they received. The reason? Positive thinking alone is not enough of a motivator, and too much dreaming can actually cause complacency. “You need to supplement your positive dreams with obstacles and reality,” argues Oettingen. “People need to know what stands in the way so that they can overcome obstacles.” To support her theory, Oettingen created a four-step guide to wish fulfillment called WOOP, which is a process everyone can follow to see their dreams through to completion. Here’s her guide to making things happen. WISH “The first step is identifying what your wish is. Very often we feel we should be inspired by something, but we never really sit down and take the time to find out what we really want.”

OUTCOME “After you’ve identified a wish you feel passionate about, imagine the best outcome after having fulfilled it. Doing this will allow you to identify whether or not your wish is something that really inspires you.” OBSTACLE “Think about what is stopping you from fulfilling that wish and experiencing that outcome. What is working against you? This may be a feeling of anxiety, an irrational belief or even an old habit. You want to be really honest with yourself. Finding the obstacle is sometimes not that easy, because it might not be so flattering—being able to laugh at your own weaknesses helps. Once you’ve identified the obstacle, you’re often able to immediately identify the action or the behaviour that will allow you to overcome it, which leads to the fourth step.”

PLAN “Now it’s time to start behaving in the way you imagined will help you overcome the obstacle. Once you’ve programmed yourself to go through the steps, your mind will do it for you without a lot of effort.”