When you make your goals, make sure you use mental contrasting to reach them.

SMART is good, contrasting is an added measure, so be SMART-mc!

To review:

S-specific

M-measurable

A-achievable- or better in teams, agreed upon by all

R-realistic

T-time oriented

For more about this, either google or write me.

Now to mental contrasting:

I use mental cobntrasting for myself, for my students and my clients.

What is it: a kind of self-regulation:  A way to swing between goals and obstacles in a way that helps you overcome the obstacles and reach your goals.  Unfortunately, classic positive thinking is not the way to reach our goals.  MENTAL CONTRASTING IS A VISUALIZATION TOOL that helps us to think about both the positives and the obstacles of reaching our goal.

How: Start with now, then think about the best future would be – both in reference to the goal.  Then think about all the things that are stressful or barriers to reaching the goal.  Thus, this is a more realistic way of thinking about the goal than classic positive thinking.

What it helps: standard visualization is less effective and shorter-lived than mental contrasting, according to research.  Issues such as weight loss and other health and lifestyle goals, improving performance, improving motivation, increasing gratitude, becoming more independent/self-dependent, and even abuse have been shown to be more effective with mental training, according to research.  It is much more solution-focused and guides action, where strategies are decided upon and implemented.

What is a one way to implement it:  WOOP

W- Wish-         What is desired, and of course, the stronger the desire, the higher the efforts (and energy) put into the wish.

O- Outcome-   This is the ideal state that you wish to achieve- it’s not really SMART, by the way, at least, not yet.  This involves finding out how you feel and how your life will change when you reach the goal- there is a lot of visualizing going on here.

O- Obstacles-  Reality check.  This part is where you reflect on hurdles and other kinds of issues that you may face while working on your desired state.  EG: rejections, failures and the ever-present half-way motivation problem. You need to write down the small parts, here.  When there is an obstacle, what can you do against it and how hard is it to overcome.  Is it avoidable? How?  Is it too hard to overcome, or are you especially weak in this area (for me, Swiss Paprika Chips are a big weakness, so I don’t buy them (usually) and when they are offered, I quickly find something else suitable that I also enjoy eating.)

P- Plan(ning)-  This is the SMART section, where you do all the if-then plans and set strategies.  

Remember to work on one goal at a time and it takes 2-3 months to really change.  Do not start too much at once.  There can be many if-then plans:  If I am offered paprika chips, then I will eat the nuts instead.  If there are no nuts, then the cheese… or olives… You may want to go on the WOOP website or buy Ms. Oettinger’s book on it.

You can do this alone, on a team, with a coach or friend.  It really helps. If you have questions, you can reach me at the email below.

Until next time, I wish you a very successful year of goal setting- and reaching with mental contrasting, and specifically, WOOP!

Patricia Jehle   patricia@jehle-coaching.com