Implementation intentions (DW#581)
Last week we introduced the powerful practice of mental contrasting or WOOPing your goals. Have you tried it yet?
Peter Gollwitzer, a psychologist and leading researcher on the science of goal achievement (who happens to be Gabrielle Oettingen’s husband – love it when spouses team up to work at self growth <3 ), came up with the idea of implementation intentions for the Plan part of WOOP.
Once again, the idea is simple but brilliant:
IF x happens, THEN I will do y.
That’s it. This is how we plan and prepare for the obstacles that will definitely come in the way of realizing our goals and dreams.
If x (obstacle) happens or shows up
Then
I will do y (my plan for dealing with the obstacle).
This works because when we mentally rehearse something, we are preparing our minds to think of this as routine and we already have a plan in place to deal with it. And so we are not derailed or blindsided by it.
IF _________________________.
THEN ______________________.
GO!
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