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Aim High, But Plan For Slips
Aim for the stars, they say. Set realistic goals, they say. But which is it? Actually, this is a trick question — according to research in behavioral science, the answer is “both.” Researchers Marissa Sharif and Suzanne Shu find that a different kind of goal, emergency reserve goals, can be more motivating and more likely to lead to success than either hard goals or easy goals. Emergency reserves are the goldilocks of goals, with the high anchor of a hard goal but the slack of an easy goal.
Say that, for example, you want to write more at work. You could commit to writing for an hour every day, likely something that most would consider a hard, inflexible goal. Or you could commit to writing only three days of the week, a relatively easy goal. But if you were to employ an emergency reserve goal, you might commit to writing every day but allow yourself two “emergency skip days” where you can choose not to write on those days. This goal feels as ambitious as the hard goal, and has all of its aspirational power, but in reality is only as strict as the easy goal. “By framing the goal as an emergency reserve, you’ve psychologically set yourself up for success,” says researcher Marissa Sharif.
Why? When you fail at a hard goal, you tend to suffer from the “what-the-hell” effect and are more likely to give up altogether. Suddenly one week of missing the mark turns into two…
