Making health related life-style changes is difficult and should not be underestimated. The bad news is that although many people have great intentions to make these changes, very few are successful. The good news is there are methods that work.
The government keeps track on it’s website www.USA.gov of the most popular New Year’s Resolutions American’s make. Weight loss and lifestyle changes top the list. Yet relatively few people who try to lose weight actually do, and an even less number keep it off. And, Market Data Enterprises a firm that tracks niche industries reported that Americans spend in excess of 60 billion annually on trying to lose weight. If your frustrated and are trying to achieve a health related goal read on. .
The good news is that working with a coach and using evidence based techniques improves chances of being successful and beating the bleak New Year’s resolutions odds of goal attainment, listed on the government’s website. Studies have shown that clients who have worked with a coach were very satisfied in terms of their return on investment and achieving their goals. The International Coach Federation maintains a portal (researchportal.coachfederation.org) where evidenced based research publications, including the outcome data that I have referenced here, can be found.
WOOP is an example of an evidenced based coaching model that helps beat these odds.
You may be wondering what's the big WHOOP about WOOP (no pun intended) and how can it help me achieve my goal? WOOP is a straight forward coaching approach that uses visualization and an evidenced based planning approach to help you succeed. WOOP is an acronym for wish, outcome, obstacle and plan. A simple approach that is steeped in science.
How does WOOP work? It works by you investing the time to clarify your values and wishes, with my help, so that you will have a clear idea of what your goal is and how to make that goal a reality. Together we look at your desired outcomes and then explore, in a very realistic way, what would need to happen for you to achieve your goal. We can then identify and recognize potential and real obstacles in your life. If we are able to understand the realities of your unique life circumstances we can better identify if there are changes that may need to take place.
In my experience this exercise has helped my clients to discriminate between what is a feasible goal and what is not – an important step in goal acheivment. This step is not to be taken lightly because if your expectations for success seem doable, science will tell you that your chances of being successful are increased – as I have witnessed. As a coach, it is my job to actively listen as you describe your life and ask the not only relevant, but sometimes hard, questions to help you determine how feasible and attainable your goals may be. Then we can identify if any modifications need to be made to attain success
The unexpected, as most of us have experienced, is a life circumstance you can pretty much count on to rear it’s ugly head and it will try to derail you. WOOP is ready to help you get out there and fight when this happens with both mental contrasting and the implementation intention. Simply put mental contrasting is the visualization exercise part of WOOP that address and strengthens your belief in your ability to achieve your goal as you determine what it will take to take to get you there. And the if-then planning plans for the unexpected. Together these techniques are solid in the science of goal attainment.
Please stay tuned as my next blog will provide what a coaching session example with a client who has a moderate amount of weight she would like to lose looks like.