#91 Give yourself some slack

Are you trying to build a new habit, like exercising regularly, cutting late-night snacking, or learning a language?  Do you ever fail to achieve your daily goal?  If so, you know how demotivating this can be, so much so that you might even give up completely.

Research by Marissa Sharif and Suzanne Shu reveals one helpful strategy to reduce the urge to give up:  𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗰𝘆 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗲𝘀.  In their step goal study, participants were divided into groups with different goals: one aimed for 7 days a week (“hard”), another for 5 days (“easy”), and a third for 7 days with 2 “emergency skip days.”

Those with skip days ended up achieving their goals on 40% more days. As Sharif explains, “What the emergency reserve does is it's this built-in failure system such that people can fail without really feeling like they violated their goal. They feel like it's still in sight.”