This is a short Heroic +1 video by Brian Johnson explaining that attaching specific if–then implementation intentions to goals dramatically increases follow-through—often tripling success—across domains like health, studying, and dieting. He situates the idea within Gabrielle Oettingen’s WOOP model (Wish, Outcome, Obstacle, Plan), credits Peter Gollwitzer for the term, and invites viewers to learn more via Heroic Us Coach training. The tone is encouraging and action-oriented, with a mission-oriented aside about scaling human flourishing by 2051.
Chapters
Hi, this is Ryan. Welcome back to another heroic one. In our last plus one, we spent some more time with Caroline Adams Miller mining some wisdom from her great book on the science of creating your best life. Today I want to chat about one more idea from her great book. We're going to look at how to triple your success. Let's get straight to work. Caroline tells us, and I quote, it is indisputable that attaching if then statements to goals and has a massive impact on follow through, particularly with hard goals. Regardless of whether the goal was a health screening, dieting or studying a certain number of hours for an independent study project. Subjects who said that they would take a specific action at a certain time or in response to another cue usually enjoyed triple the success of their peers. So you want to triple your success. Use if then statements. Scientists call these implementation intentions. We talked about them forever ago in +1 number 157. Check it out. And as I type that out, I realized we forgot to celebrate the fact we crossed the +1 1800 mark a few days ago. Whoops. So focused on the next plus one that I didn't even notice. Perfect. And I love the fact that +1 number 1800 was on how to heroically change the world. I repeat, you are the hero and the guide we've been waiting for. If we're going to change the world together. The hero that's you needs to become the guide to other heroes. Your loved ones, your family, team, community, etc. Who then become guides for more heroes, who then relentlessly continue the force multiplying ripples of empowering their loved ones to activate their heroic potential in the months and years and decades ahead so we can fulfill our mission of creating a world in which 51% of humanity is flourishing by the year 2051. With that extended aside, back to work. A guy named Peter Golwitzer came up with the whole idea of implementation intentions. He's married to my friend Gabrielle Oettingen, who wrote another one of my favorite positive psychology books called Rethinking Positive Thinking. Check out those notes. Now, implementation intentions are essentially the P or plan in Gabrielle's brilliant whoop model that has been scientifically shown to help us make our dreams a reality. To recap. Woop. Yet again. W O, O, P. We start with a wish. What do you really want? That's your wish. Then we think about the outcome. That's the O or the benefits. Why do you really want that? Then we see the potential obstacles. The second O, W o O. What's inevitably going to get in the way. Then we create a plan with if then statements to dominate the obstacles. What specifically will you do when you face those inevitable obstacles? That's today's plus one. You want to triple you want to your level of success. Use implementation intentions today. P.S. we have an entire class called Algorithms 101. We spend a ton of time in our 300 day heroic coach certification program on helping you master the process of writing these if then statement algorithms to help you change your life and triple your success. Learn more and join our next cohort at Heroic Us Coach.
