Better Goal Setting: Turning WOOP into ASHIT
Did you ever wish there was a simple way to turn your wishes into reality? Well, there is! Did you ever wish Philip would paraphrase that same simple way and turn it into something “better”? Certainly not, but that’s what you’re going to get in today’s article.
We are waist deep in strategizing and planning at work these days. Since I was the only person to express interest, I became the strategy session facilitator by default (the 2 sweetest words in the English language).
Being the facilitator is a great way to satisfy your desire to be in control, and also avoid having to come up with ideas live in a group setting. Plus you get to cut people off if they talk too long, and it’s not rude, it’s “facilitating”.
The sessions got me thinking about personal visions and actions, and why we don’t have individual strategy sessions for our lives. I know I haven’t pulled out a white board and wordsmithed a mission statement for myself (as far as you know). Surely one of my fellow internet advice pundits has come up with an idea to simplify the path from a wish to reality. Spoiler alert — Yes they did.
Gabriele Oettingen came up with a nice process called WOOP. WOOP stands for Wish, Outcome, Obstacle, and Plan. To oversimplify, you wish for something, imagine how the outcome would impact you, imagine a potential obstacle, and then create a plan to get around the obstacle. There’s a whole website you can check out here to take the idea for a spin.
The concept is great, since it’s very user friendly and you don’t need to think about your metrics like when you have to write SMART goals. Wish is a bit of a misnomer. It’s not the same as wishing to win the lottery when you blow out your birthday cake candles. This is more of a wish for a specific improvement in your life, like learning a new language or getting promoted at work. You think of the thing you want, imagine yourself already having it, and planning what to do if something gets in your way. Let me rephrase — planning something non-violent to do if something gets in your way. I just remembered the personality types of people who read articles on LinkedIn.
WOOP does force you to think about what the future would hold if you actually got your wish, which isn’t always as nice as it first seems. There’s always a cost to get a benefit. Getting promoted usually gets you a little more money and a lot more work. Successfully convincing your boss to let you work remotely 100% of the time could result in them expecting you to work more hours each day. Make sure you are comfortable with that trade off before you spend a lot of time on your planning phase.
I only have one complaint about the WOOP — I can’t recall the acronym when I try to describe it to other people. I usually get most of the letters, but by the time I’ve recalled what the letters mean, my audience has wandered off. Guess I don’t woop enough for it to stick in my mind. Even as I typed that, Google tried to convince me to change that word to whoop. See? Google isn’t a fan either.
Since this is my domain, I decided to make a new acronym. I find it helps to explain things in my own words to ensure I understand them. Let’s take a crack at explaining the WOOP idea in terms we can all appreciate. Something funny and memorable for the acronym so I wouldn’t forget it in the middle of a fancy dinner party and then look foolish.
Let me take you on a short trip on my train of thought. Please keep your arms and legs inside the car at all times. I started with the original words, and you’ll see the other words I considered below along with why I landed on a particular one.
- Wish: Desire, Want, Aspiration, Lust, Craving, Yearning. Desire and Lust get into some risque territory for a family friendly article. No one says Yearning except for Romance novelists and people who pick the first suggested synonyms. Let’s go with Aspiration. Sounds lofty and worth pursuing.
- Outcome: Ending, End Goal, Conclusion, Result, Success. Most of these words sound too final or too black and white. Success is what we’re after here. Succeed at your Aspiration.
- Obstacle: Self Sabotage, Hurdle, Snag, Stumbling Block, Hitch. Don’t want to go negative, so self sabotage is out. The last time I heard Hitch was in someone’s giddy up. Hurdle sounds about right. It’s something athletes jump over all the time.
- Plan: Action, If/Then, Strategy, Proposal, Intention, System, Method. I do love a good strategy and system, but I’m a sucker for logical statements. If the hurdle occurs, then I’ll do this other thing. If/Then it is.
So Wish, Outcome, Obstacle, Plan becomes Aspiration, Success, Hurdle, If/Then. Don’t spend your time on WOOP when there’s ASHIT handy. It covers everything we’re looking for — it’s simple, memorable, and effective. I know people are going to recognize ASHIT method when they hear it.
Don’t forget to take ASHIT with you to all of your future fancy social gatherings. I know this usually isn’t something we typically discuss in public, but we could all use this method in our lives. You might find that ASHIT is exactly what some of those uptight people need. I guarantee they’ll be talking about you and your idea for years afterwards. You can thank me later.
-Philip
