Michael Covel speaks with Gabriel Oettingen on today’s podcast. Gabriele Oettingen is a Professor of Psychology at New York University and the University of Hamburg. Her research focuses on how we think about the future, and how this impacts cognition, emotion, and behavior. Her first book is called Rethinking Positive Thinking. This is an interesting conversation for Covel--Oettingen is looking at data, just like traders would, but she is looking at data on motivation and positive thinking. Is too much positive thinking a problem? It can be. Is there a way to go about thinking about the future, and thinking positively? Oettingen has a framework and structure that can help us all. Covel and Oettingen discuss positive thinking, optimism and over-confidence; how positive thinking can reign in your sense of urgency; the effect of positive thinking on us from a scientific viewpoint; whether Oettingen views her work as an attack on the self-help industry; Oettingen’s process and how she views data; the WOOP (Wish, Outcome, Obstacle, Plan) process; understanding each component part of WOOP; “ah-ha” moments in Oettingen’s early development; the idea of WOOP as mental contrasting; non-conscious processes. Want a free trend following DVD? Go to trendfollowing.com/win.