Brian Johnson teaches his son Emerson the WOOP goal-setting method in a car ride. They work through a concrete wish: becoming a chess grandmaster by 15 or 16. The method walks through outcomes, obstacles like laziness and fear, and concrete plans to overcome them.
Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another heroic plus one. I just dropped Emerson off at a day long chess tournament at the Austin Grandmaster Chess Academy. We arrived 10 minutes before the first game, banged out three quick sets of 11 burpees before the match while listening to mommy's heroic chess declarations set to rocky music. Of course pre match protocol dominated. Let's go. Now, the moment we drive out of the little gate on our property and hit the road to go to a tournament, I always start our conversation with the exact same question.
Me.
Hey buddy. What do you want?
Emerson?
To have fun today and get some rating points. Me. Fantastic. Now what do you want? Big picture, longer term. Emerson to be a grandmaster.
Me.
Awesome. By when. Remember the number one thing successful people do differently. Science says they set specific goals.
Emerson.
By the time I'm 15 or 16.
Me.
That's amazing. If you do it by the time you're still 15, that's how many years.
Emerson.
Five. Me. Exactly 20, 24, 20, 25, 2026, 2027, 2028.
Boom.
I'm so excited for you. You believe you can do that?
Emerson?
Yeah, if I have fun and work hard.
Me.
Exactly. Hey, have we ever talked about woo?
Emerson?
I don't think so. Me. Ah, we haven't. Huh. Cool. You're gonna love this. I teach it to all of our heroic coaches who then teach it to all their heroic clients. It's fantastic. It's all about the science of how to make your dreams a reality. Then I continued. Here's how it works. Woop. W, O, O, P. Each letter stands for something. The W is for wish or what you hope happens. The first O is for outcome or why you're excited to make your wish happen. The second O is for the obstacles you might face. And the P is for your plan on how you'll deal with the inevitable obstacles. Make sense? Emerson? Yeah. Me. Awesome. Let's go through it real quick. We'll start with your wish. What is it? No, this isn't about Emerson. It's about you thinking about your woop. Now I told Emerson, you already told me what your wish is, but let's start there. Emerson tells me to become a grandmaster, to which I say yep, and by when again, rule number one of effective goal setting is having a very clear target. If I'm an archer and I want to hit a target, I but don't know exactly where it is. Can I hit it?
Emerson?
Of course. Not. Me. So by when do you intend to be a grandmaster?
Emerson?
By the time I turn 16. Me. Amazing. Exciting. Now, why do you want to hit that target and fulfill that wish? What benefits will you get? Emerson tells me, because it will be fun to be able to beat basically anyone in the world. To which I said, yeah, it will be, won't it? And you'll pretty much be able to do that. I mean, there are like, only 2,000 grandmasters in the whole world, right? That's so cool.
Me?
Why else do you want to become a grandmaster, Emerson? Because it will be fun. Me, that's another great reason. Why else? Because I'll be able to make a lot of money. Me. Yeah, that's pretty cool. And I like the order in which you mentioned that relative to your other reasons, you want to make sure you do something that you really enjoy. When you're really good at it, you have a shot at making a lot of money doing it. Me, what's cool about it is that I think you're going to be able to help a lot of people by teaching them all the stuff you're learning from me and Mommy about how to eat, move and sleep and train your mind and all that. So what else makes you excited? Emerson says, I'm not sure. I tell him, I'll tell you the number one reason I am most excited about your heroic quest to become a grandmaster. You'll prove to yourself that you can pretty much do anything you set your mind to. Period. How exciting is that? Emerson says, that's super cool. Me, it's kind of like Elon Musk. Note we've been listening to Walter Isaacson's brilliant biography on our long road trips. All great, with an asterisk on the number of F bombs dropped. Whole nother chat. Elon Musk knows he can figure out anything he wants to dominate. And that's like you. Emerson gives me a big smile. Then I say, all righty, buddy. That's our O for outcomes. Now for the second O. What obstacles might you face? Emerson tells me his face is all scrunched up, and I'm sharing this in detail, imagining you doing it for yourself and for your kids, your colleagues, your clients, etc. His face is all scrunched up. He says, all right. My obstacles might be laziness and fear, to which I say, very good. That's what Grandpa Phil says are the two primary obstacles we all face. Fear isn't a big obstacle for you. You love to compete, which is incredible. Remember John Wooden's pyramid? Emerson says, yeah, well, you remember the peak is called competitive greatness. Being your best when it matters most. And loving the battle. That's totally like you. Then I say, you remember the cornerstones? He says, loving what you do. And hard work. To which I say, yep, enthusiasm and hard work. Brilliant. Now, what other obstacles might you face? And how might laziness come in? Emerson says, not exercising enough. I say, good one, dude. You'll master that. We just need to remember to make it fun. What else? Hmm. Not doing my daily work. I say, yeah, but I'm not worried about that either. You're on fire almost 50 days in a row of puzzles. Great work. That's like you. You know the only thing that concerns me? I ask him.
Emerson says, hmm.
And I say that you quit. I think that as long as we keep having fun and you push through the hard times, you're going to continue to do some incredible things. He nods his head. Then we talked some more details and clarified his plan to bring it all together on our 40 minute drive from the country to the Austin Grandmaster Chess Academy that Saturday morning. But that's more than enough for from me. And that's today's plus one.
Whoop.
Explained like you're 11. If you feel so inspired. Whoop. Your wildly important goals. And if you feel so heroically inspired, explain it to an 11 something year old and help them forge their confidence in creating the life of their dreams. Bonus points for explaining it to a 21, 31, 4151-617181-91101 year old as well. Actually, if you're fortunate enough to know 101 year old, ask them how they figured out how to live so long.
Whoop. There it is.
The science of making our dreams a reality. Today's the day, hero. We're all in. Let's go.
