Persistence is the key to success. Yet, people continue to give up in the face of failure, not realizing that in “long-term goal pursuit, small short-term failures are inevitable” (Sharif & Shue, 17). When people decide on a long-term goal like losing weight or writing a book, they typically “set short-term goals, such as going to the gym multiple days of the week” or writing 15,000 words a week (17). Unfortunately, people tend to give up on their long-term goal, when their short-term goals aren’t met (17). For those who want to lose weight, “missing a few days of normal gym routine may lead to weeks without returning” (17). Those who want to write a book, might give up altogether after failing to reach their 15,000-weekly word count. People can easily fall prey to an all-or-nothing thinking mindset, or the “what-the-h*” effect, when trying to accomplish a long-term goal (18).
Avoid The All-Or-Nothing Mindset & The “What the H*” Effect
An all-or-nothing mindset, in terms of reaching a goal, is thinking a main goal can only be accomplished if each sub-goal is perfectly achieved. One might say to oneself “If I don’t perfectly complete each sub-goal, I will not accomplish my main goal.” A more pertinent example would be someone thinking “If I miss one day at the gym, I will not reach my goal of losing ten pounds.” This of course isn’t true. Someone who misses one day of the gym can still lose ten pounds. It might take that person 6 weeks and one day to reach their goal, rather than six weeks, but the goal can be obtained nonetheless. When it comes to a long-term goal, an all-or-nothing mindset can be really destructive towards goal attainment. People who believe that a goal won’t be accomplished if sub-goals aren’t completed perfectly, are susceptible to the “what-the-h*” effect.
The “what-the-h*” effect has shown “that when an individual fails to inhibit an unwanted behavior, they may completely abandon their goal” (18). Someone trying to save money by not eating out, might end up over-splurging on fast-food if they need to eat-out. Instead, of buying a small meal the person might think “What the heck. I’m already here, I might as well buy a large.” This can also happen to someone trying to lose weight by avoiding fast-food. If the individual finds himself in a fast-food line, he might think the exact same thing as the person trying to save money. In both cases, the people end up abandoning their main goal completely buy buying more food than what’s needed. Instead of losing seven dollars to fast-food, the person might have lost fourteen dollars to fast-food. Rather than eating a meal with 550 calories, the person might have eaten a meal with 850 calories. The hypothetical people in the above example, could have left their main goal intact by not eating or buying more food than necessary. However, the people ended up giving up on their main goal completely because the “what-the-h*” effect took place.
Both the all-or-nothing mindset and the “what the h*” effect can occur after a failure and hinder long-term goal attainment (18). Never failing might seem like the perfect solution to long-term goal-attainment, but never failing is rarely a feasible option. Thankfully, research has found that leaving room for failure can promote goal persistence (19). People who frame their goals with the mindset of giving themselves emergency reserves, tend to persist in their goals (19). An emergency reserve is “slack around a goal that can be used if needed…” (19). Instead of saying “I will never eat fast-food, so that I can save money” or “I will never buy fast-food, so that I can weight,” one might reframe their goal and say, “I can have two splurge days a month to eat fast-food.” Rather than not allowing for any failure, emergency reserves signal that failure is acceptable and it is a part of goal attainment (19). The people who reframe their goal to include emergency reserves, are less likely to over-indulge, and less likely to completely give up on their goal in the future (19).
The Benefit of Emergency Reserves
Marissa Sharif and Suzanne Shu conducted four studies that confirmed that emergency reserves act as an effective “cost-free nudge in increasing persistence after goal failure…” (27). The main goal in the first study was for participants to reach a certain number of steps per week, while the sub-goal was to reach a certain number of steps per day (19). In the first study participants were put into four categories: hard, easy, reserve weekly, and reserve monthly (19). The participants in the easy group were asked to take x number of steps for five days a week (19). Those in the hard group were told to take x number of steps for seven days a week (19). Participants in the reserve weekly were told to take x number of steps for seven days a week with two emergency reserves per week (19). The participants in the reserve monthly group were given eight emergency reserves that they could use throughout the whole month (19). Meaning, in theory, they could use 3-4 emergency reserves in one week. When the participants completed their step-goal for the day, their progress was represented with a blue bar (20). If the participants did not complete their step-goal for the day no blue bar was shown (20). When the participants used the emergency reserve button, a blue bar showed up (20).
The results found that ‘individuals in the Reserve-Weekly and Reserve-Monthly condition reached their step goals up to forty percent more days on average per week than those in the Hard and Easy conditions (21). Participants in the Reserve-Weekly group “were significantly more likely to reach their step goal than those with Hard or Easy goals” (21). Those in the Reserve-Monthly group “were significantly more likely to persist after a failure than those with Hard goals and directionally more than those with Easy goals…” (21). However, the positive impact only applied in the emergency reserve groups if the emergency reserve was used. If the emergency reserve wasn’t used after a sub-goal failure, then the participants “persisted about the same amount as those with Hard and Easy goals…” (21). This suggests that the “actual use of the reserve is important to post-failure persistence” (21).
The second and fourth study used word searches as a way to measure the impact the use of an emergency reserve had on persistence after failure (22, 25). Both studies supported the hypothesis that the use of an emergency reserve has a positive impact on persistence after failure (23, 26). The third study was unique in that it asked participants to find spelling errors in a passage (24). When the participants were correct, a black circle popped up to display that the participants found all errors successfully. Participants who were incorrect got a circle displayed with an X inside. Those who used an emergency point got a grey circle displayed to show that their emergency point was used.
The first passage in the study had only four errors, making it easy for participants to identify the spelling mistakes (24). The second task was purposefully made to be impossible (24). Participants were asked to find ten spelling errors when only nine errors existed (24). All participants were then asked “‘Since you were unable to find all the errors in the last passage, you have a choice of what to do next. Do you want to continue trying to reach your goal and try to find errors in the last passage or do you want to give up and read funny memes instead?’” (24). The results found that after failure the participants in the emergency reserve condition were significantly more likely to persist than those without an emergency reserve (24).
These results are interesting for two reasons. First the results show that the use of an emergency reserve is beneficial even when the graphical display looks different from a point being earned (25). Participants who used the emergency reserve “felt like they had made significantly more progress on their goal after failing the second passage than those who did not have the option to use an emergency reserve (25). The second reason these results are interesting is because the participants who used the emergency reserve were more likely to go onto the third round than those who had failed and not used an emergency reserve (24).
Use Graphical Displays To Show Progress
As a whole, the results from these studies confirm the idea that making room for failure leads to long-term goal persistence (24). Instead of being hard on yourself for not completing a goal perfectly, it’s important to give yourself room to fail. Although the researchers found that the graphical representation for the emergency reserve doesn’t have to be the same as a point, the graphical representation still matters (25). Graphical representations should still be implemented to help an individual see progress is being made. People who decide to reach a long-term goal should have a symbol to indicate sub-goal success for the day, as well as a symbol to indicate the use of an emergency reserve. A green check mark on a calendar to symbolize success and a yellow check mark to symbolize the use of an emergency reserve might be helpful graphical representations. It’s important to find a symbol to use for an emergency reserve that doesn’t symbolize failure. As note from study three, those who saw an X to indicate failure did not persist as often as those who received a grey circle to indicate the use of an emergency reserve (24).
Remember: It’s Okay To Fail
Overall, this study shows that people who use emergency reserves are more likely to persist in their long-term goal. It’s easy to fall into an all-or-nothing mindset and forget that it’s better to allow for failure than to prohibit it in its entirety. Even after reading the research article, and making my way through this one, I found myself almost fall into an all-or-nothing mindset in terms of reaching a long-term goal. I have been wanting to lose weight for about two years, and now that my wedding is fast approaching, my desire to go back to my normal weight pre-pandemic has only increased. As I was sitting down with my fiancé, talking about wanting to lose weight, I blurted out that once it got cooler out I would go on walks without fail. Immediately, I realized where I went wrong, and I corrected myself. The point is to lose weight, not to go on walks every day without fail. I now know that not allowing micro-fails can lead to the macro long-term goal failure. Not allowing for failure can be more problematic than failure itself. Those who reframe their goals with emergency reserves in mind are more likely to persist in their long-term goals pursuit after failure than those who don’t allow for failure, yet end up failing anyway (27).
In the end, the best way to avoid all-or-nothing thinking and the “what the h*” effect is to set up emergency reserves before setting out to accomplish a long-term goal (27). Decide in advance the number of emergency reserves you will allot yourself every week. It’s important to remember that a couple of sub-goal failures does not equate to long-term goal failure. With that being said, allow room for failure and watch how much you grow when you view failure as progress rather than retrogress (27). If persistence is the key to success, an emergency reserve is the force needed to turn the key.
Work Cited:
Sharif, Marissa A., and Suzanne B. Shu. “Nudging persistence after failure through emergency reserves.” 28 Jan. 2019.