This ties back to Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture.
Think NEGATIVELY.
“Another way to be prepared is to think negatively. Yes, I’m a great optimist. But when trying to make a decision, I often think of the worst-case scenario. I call it ‘Eaten By Wolves Factor.’ If I do something, what’s the most terrible thing that could happen? Would I be eaten by wolves? One thing that makes it possible to be an optimist is if you have a contingency plan for when all hell breaks loose. There are a lot of things I don’t worry about because I have a plan in place if they do.”
## The Power of Negative Thinking
> “A lot of people talk about expecting the best but preparing for the worst, but I think that’s a seductively misleading concept. There’s never just one ‘worst.’ Almost always there’s a whole spectrum of bad possibilities. The only thing that would really qualify as *the* worst would be not having a plan for how to cope.” ~ Chris Hadfield, An Astronauts Guide to Life on Earth.
It’s not enough to simply visualize your life unfolding perfectly. WOOP helps us “mentally contrast” our ideal vision with the obstacles that may get in the way.
The process of WOOPing our hoped-for vision for the future against the harsh obstacles: “Anticipating problems and figuring out how to solve them is actually the opposite of worrying: it’s productive.”
Deep confidence comes as a result because we know we’re more prepared to deal with the adversity ahead of us.
Step 1: Get clear on what you want.