Name the obstacle, not just the dream

For years I thought the trick to reaching a goal was to picture it clearly and often. It turns out the picture is only half the job, and maybe the easier half.

In Name the goal, tame the goal I wrote about writing a goal you can actually check. This piece is about the line that should come straight after it: the thing most likely to get in the way. Name the goal, yes. Then name the obstacle.

The psychologist Gabriele Oettingen has spent years studying what happens when we daydream about the future. Her findings are not what the poster on the office wall would like. In four studies, she and Heather Barry Kappes had people imagine an ideal future in glowing terms. Compared with people who questioned the fantasy, pictured things going badly or simply thought about facts, the dreamers felt less energised and put in less effort. Even their systolic blood pressure, a rough sign of being ready to act, went down (Positive fantasies about idealized futures sap energy, Kappes and Oettingen, 2011).

That fits my experience. A beautiful picture of the finish line can feel as if I've already arrived. My body relaxes. And a relaxed body doesn't make the phone call.

Oettingen's alternative is called mental contrasting. You picture the wish and its best outcome, and then, straight after, you picture what in you or around you stands in the way. In an early series of studies, this pairing made people's commitment follow their real chances. When success was likely, they committed more strongly. When it wasn't, they held back (Self-regulation of goal-setting, Oettingen, Pak and Schnetter, 2001).

I like that second part as much as the first. Naming the obstacle doesn't only push me forward. Sometimes it tells me, kindly, that this goal isn't the one for now. That's useful too. It saves me months of half-trying.

A named obstacle needs a response, and a second line of research helps here. Peter Gollwitzer calls these responses implementation intentions: plans in the form "if situation X happens, then I will do Y." Gollwitzer and Paschal Sheeran pooled 94 independent tests of the idea and found a medium-to-large effect on reaching goals, beyond simply intending to (Implementation intentions and goal achievement, Gollwitzer and Sheeran, 2006).

Oettingen later joined the two ideas into a four-step routine with an easy name: WOOP. Wish, Outcome, Obstacle, Plan.

It takes me five minutes, on the back of the Name it sheet. Here's an example:

• Wish: run three times a week until the end of the month.
• Outcome: sleeping better, and feeling that I keep promises to myself.
• Obstacle: not the rain, not my shoes. The real one: after work I sit down "for a minute" and never get up.
• Plan: if I walk through the door after work, then I put my running clothes on before I sit down.

Look at the obstacle line. The first answer that came to mind was the weather. The honest one was the sofa. That's the naming part, and it matters most. A plan aimed at the wrong obstacle is a good plan for someone else.

It's the same move as in Name the problem before you solve it: the first explanation is usually the cloud, not the problem inside it.

Good teams do a version of this without the acronym. Before a Scrum team settles on a Sprint Goal, someone usually asks, "what could stop us?" In the large planning events of SAFe, the Scaled Agile Framework, risks are written down and sorted in the open before anyone commits. I'll write about that sorting in the next piece. At home or at work the point is the same: a goal without a named obstacle is just a hope with a deadline.

If you track the goal, track the plan too. Did the if-then actually fire? On how many evenings did I change before I sat down? That number tells me more than counting runs, because it measures the thing I decided to change. There's more on choosing the number in Measure what you want.

The Bible has a plain line about counting the cost before you start: "For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?" (Luke 14:28). Naming the obstacle is my way of sitting down first.

I'm not a doctor, and this isn't therapy. It's a way of seeing that helps me. If you are struggling, please talk to someone you trust or a professional.

Name the wish. Then name the wall. Then decide what you'll do when you reach it.