Positive thinking is everywhere. Just think thoroughly about something you wish, and it will happen. This book says that this affirmation is not true, or at least not enough. Positive thinking can even induce a state of indulgence in one’s dream, thereby eliciting no motivation to take action in the direction of that dream. So here comes the WOOP method. By committing to mental contrasting, that is, confronting the obstacles that stand in the way and finding what you can do to overcome them, our wishes will come true. So here comes the WOOP method. WOOP stands for Wish, Outcome, Obstacle, and Plan. It’s a non-specific tool, so you can WOOP anything. It also helps you to realise that a wish is not feasible and to drop it or dig deeper to understand what are the real obstacles and real wishes you aspire for. Therefore, let’s do it.
“Dreams are good for quite a lot, then – it just depends on the specific context. They might not help us lose more weight, quit smoking, or get a job, but they do help us stay alive in the desert, survive under political repression, and keep the faith as we wait for judges to sentence our weed-dealing boyfriends. The key is simply not to ask more of our fantasies than they can give us. So long as we understand the power and limits of positive fantasies, they can serve us as helpmates, not as restraints. We would be wrong to jettison our dreams, just as we are wrong to blindly assume that simply dreaming something can make it so.”