This Elul, WOOP Your Life Into Shape!

Visualization has long been part of elite sports.   Athletes use all of their senses to imagine how they’ll swing the bat or what the motion will feel like as they shoot the ball.  They picture the crowd and imagine what the shot looks like as it goes in.   They envision the euphoric feeling of scoring the winning run or goal and they detail all of the twists and turns of a given race. 

Legendary golfer Jack Nicklaus famously used mental imagery for every shot. In describing how he imagines his performance, he wrote: 

I never hit a shot even in practice without having a sharp in-focus picture of it in my head. It's like a color movie. First, I "see" the ball where I want it to finish, nice and white and sitting up high on the bright green grass. Then the scene quickly changes, and I "see" the ball going there: its path, trajectory, and shape, even its behavior on landing. Then there's a sort of fade-out, and the next scene shows me making the kind of swing that will turn the previous images into reality and only at the end of this short private Hollywood spectacular do I select a club and step up to the ball.

Once an athlete fully visualizes the game, the shot, or the race, only then does he or she actually successfully perform the task. As Stephen Covey writes in his 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, you have to begin with the end in mind.  “To begin with the end in mind means to start with a clear understanding of your destination. It means to know where you’re going so that you better understand where you are now and so that the steps you take are always in the right direction…”

The Shem MiShmuel, the great Sochatchover Rebbe, applies this same principle to spiritual growth.  He explains:

שטרם יקרב לכל דבר לעשותו, הן בתורה ובתפילה וכן אפילו בדבר הרשות, לא יהי נבהל לעשותו טרם יצייר בעצמו היטב את הדבר ההוא וצורתו ותועלתו.

Before I begin my quest for growth or accomplishment, I must first have a clear picture in my mind of what I want to accomplish.  What does the process look like?  What will the setbacks feel like and what will it feel like when I succeed? I need to know what I want the end to look like and what the product should be.  Only then do I begin my spiritual journey. 

But, how do we get there?  How do we commit ourselves to real and lasting change?  A few years ago, I listened to a podcast featuring Dr. Gabriele Oettingen, professor of Psychology at New York University and the University of Hamburg and author of the book “Rethinking Positive Thinking: Inside the New Science of Motivation.”

She argues that one of the mistakes often made in goal-setting is that it isn’t coupled with a proper understanding of what’s holding you back and how you will overcome those internal obstacles.  Dr. Oettingen created a simple, four-step scientifically proven tool that helps change our behaviors and achieve our goals.  She calls it WOOP.  It stands for Wish, Outcome, Obstacle and Plan. 

Here’s how it works:

Wish:  Choose a goal that you want to accomplish.  It could be exercising more frequently, learning more regularly, or spending more time with your children.  The horizon of the goal is irrelevant.  It could be a goal for tomorrow or for ten years from now. 

Outcome:  What’s the best possible outcome that would result from achieving your goal?  It could be that you want to have more energy or feel better about yourself; you might want to feel more accomplished, or you might want to feel proud of yourself. 

Obstacles:  What are the personal obstacles that might prevent you from achieving these goals?  What internal hurdles stand in your way (lack of motivation, you’re tired, you get distracted by social media)?

Plan:  If you can encounter any of those obstacles, what actions will you take to overcome them?  What strategies will you put in place to push through those barriers? 

By successfully blending visualization, implementation, and a deep awareness of the obstacles we place in our own path, WOOP has shown fantastic results.  In schools, WOOP has been shown to significantly improve effort, attendance, homework completion, and GPA. Outside of school, WOOP has been shown to reduce stress, increase engagement, improve time management, and promote physical health.

The Shem MiShmuel concludes with the following message about change:

ונראה דזוהי הכנת אלול קודם ראש השנה, לבלי יקרב לעבודת החודש השביעי אלא בהכנה וציור מקודם.

The entire month of Elul affords us the opportunity to re-envision and reimagine what we want ourselves to become.  It encourages us to put WOOP into action and break out of our status quo and re-imagine and rethink what type of person we really want to be.   Elul is our month to visualize.  To dream and to re-imagine what our goals should be and where we are headed and put a practical plan in place for how we will get there.  It’s our chance to look at the big picture, to chart out the direction we’re headed, and for each of us to emerge as a truly changed person.