With the New Year upon us, many people are beginning to pursue goals and resolutions of how they’d like to develop in 2021. The problem with many New Year's resolutions is that most of them fall off within 2 to 4 weeks. What is the difference between a resolution that transforms a life versus one that falls by the wayside?
The difference may very well come down to how the goal is defined.
The acronym S.M.A.R.T. is often viewed as the gold standard of goal setting. S.M.A.R.T. stands for SPECIFIC, MEASURABLE, ATTAINABLE, RELEVANT and TIME-BOUND. While this is a decent starting point for your initial goal, making a goal stick requires a whole new acronym entirely. A book titled: Rethinking Positive Thinking by New York University professor Gabriele Oettingen provides us a new acronym that adds a little more clarity and more depth to the goal setting process: W.H.O.O.P., which stands for WISHING, HOPING, OUTCOME, OBSTACLES and PLAN. Noted CrossFit coach Ben Bergeron in his podcast chasing Excellence expanded on this concept of W.H.O.O.P. and added two pieces, IDENTITY and EXECUTION to form W.H.O.O.P.I.E. Through this acronym, it is possible to create a goal and a framework that can help you transform your life.
The first pieces of W.H.O.O.P.I.E. are WISHING and HOPING. These two words are where a person can identify their large overarching vision of what they'd like to achieve or who they’d like to become. Whether it is to complete their first triathlon or lose 20 lbs of fat, this is the overarching vision that will guide the goal setting process.
The next piece of W.H.O.O.P.I.E. is OUTCOME. This is a two-part endeavor and is a key difference between W.H.O.O.P.I.E. and S.M.A.R.T. goals. The first part of the endeavor is to define the overarching vision in exact terms by actually using the S.M.A.R.T. system within the W.H.O.O.P.I.E. framework. This is where the precise goal definition of wanting to lose 10% body fat by June 1st comes into play. The second piece that takes the S.M.A.R.T. goal to the next level is to attach a feeling or an emotion to it. This emotion being attached to the goal is what helps people maintain the motivation and feel the result of their hard work in advance. The emotional component to a goal cannot be overstated. Using the example above, a person would say to themselves, “If I lose 10% body fat by June 1st, I will feel so incredibly proud of my effort and feel comfortable and confident going on vacation to the beach with my family.” This feeling that one gets from attaching an emotion to the goal is what will help maintain the discipline of pursuing a goal when the road isn’t smooth down the line.
The next step is to identify OBSTACLES that will prevent a person from reaching the goal. These obstacles could be limited time, limited funds, or even limited knowledge of how to actually achieve their goal. Anything that could stand in the way of you reaching your goal could potentially be an obstacle.
The P stands for PLAN. This is where the person creates the process required to achieve the goal. Using the above example this could be outlining a proper macronutrient template to achieve fat loss or sitting a framework of how to use a whole food diet without a macronutrient template in order to achieve the desired results.
The first piece provided by coach Bergeron is IDENTITY. This crucial piece is another cornerstone of the process that helps people maintain the discipline required to keep pursuing their goal when, not if, obstacles arise. Attaching an identity to a goal is as simple as saying, “I'm the kind of person that…..”. If we go back to the previous example of wanting to lose 20 lbs of fat, this might be as simple as saying, “I'm the kind of person that instead of eating Christmas cookies at our Christmas company Christmas party I will either bring healthy snacks for me to share with my co-workers or I will simply wait to eat until I'm around food sources that will help me achieve my goals.” This automates your decisions in advance to help you stay on track and on the way to becoming the person you want to be.
The final piece and as coach Bergeron explains, the most important piece of W.H.O.O.P.I.E., is the E for EXECUTION. This is where he argues that Massive Action must be taken in order to pursue the goal. All the planning in the world does you no good if you do not pursue the plan with decisive action.
I encourage all of you to try out the W.H.O.O.P.I.E. framework the next time you set a goal for yourselves. No matter how small the goal might be, by attaching an emotion to it, attaching your identity to it and by pursuing it with massive action, I am sure that the next goal you set for yourself won’t fall by the wayside in 2 to 4 weeks. Instead, it could very well be the first step in transforming your life forever.
Cheers,
John