The second-worst thing that can happen to a good habit is interrupting it. Let’s say you’d been running for 10 days in a row, and on the 11th you stopped for some reason. You got busy, the weather was bad, etc.

The worst thing that can happen to a good habit is letting that one interruption roll over into a second and third interruption. You figure you’d already messed up once—and the feeling of shame and despair makes you want to mess up twice, or three times. It makes you want to stop trying.

You can get ahead of these interruptions by building wiggle room into your habits ahead of time. Plan for an interruption, because it’s probably going to happen.