How to redo your goals

 

As a teacher, I often hear students say that they do not like to learn, that this class is too difficult. But I have watched my own children play video games, and I see them learn and struggle without complaint.  One of the things that video games seem to do is hook kids with new chances to apply what they learned.  They might have been killed in the game, but they can start over and apply the new knowledge.

I was therefore fascinated when I read about research done by a University of Pennsylvania professor on emergency reserves.  Emergency reserves are a way to give yourself a redo on a goal and start fresh again.

You may have heard that setting difficult goals helps you accomplish more than if you set easy ones.  A struggling student may set a goal to study economics 20 minutes a week, which is probably easy to do.  The problem is that even if they hit that goal, it might not be enough to truly learn the material.  A more difficult goal would be to study 20 minutes a night.

What sometimes happens in trying to reach difficult goals is that things get in the way.  You might have sports practice or might not feel well one night.  When this happens you might think that a goal is impossible, so you stop studying altogether.

That’s when you want to use your emergency reserve.  If you give yourself one emergency reserve a week, then when something inevitably comes up, you can use your emergency reserve and continue to hit your goal.  The researchers found that not only did people perform better when they had emergency reserves, but they often did not even use them.

When setting difficult goals in the future, make sure to give yourself an emergency reserve.  It will allow you to be more productive. After all, we can all use a free redo once in a while