failure is why people don’t like change, but the reality is that failure is not final — it’s not the end of the world if you don’t get it right. All successful people fail at some point in their lives, but they use their mistakes to make better decisions in the future. THE MERE EXPOSURE EFFECT Another powerful mind trick that keeps us bound to the same old behaviors, beliefs, and routines is “the mere exposure effect.” Decades of research have found that the more we experience a particular phenomenon, the more we are likely to accept and like it. For example, a study conducted in 1968 found that the more participants were exposed to symbols and words, the chances of developing a positive affiliation with them increased. You may have experienced this in your personal life, where the more you interact with an individual, the more you find yourself liking them. There are definitely exceptions to this rule because in some cases the more you are exposed to something the more you notice things that you don’t like. However, in general, the longer we are exposed to a situation, the more we develop an assumption that it may not be exactly what we want, but it will do. The mere exposure effect has its advantages and disadvantages. The good news is that if you are working toward improving your self-discipline and developing better habits, when self-control becomes the norm to you, there is less chance of you reverting back to your old ways. The more time you spend operating with a positive mindset, the more you will become comfortable with it. The disadvantages are that the natural human tendency to hold on to bad habits will make it difficult to develop good habits. You might have a desire to get up on Saturday morning and start working on your goals, but because you’ve spent the majority of your life sleeping in on Saturdays, you will have a hard time dismantling your status quo bias. The trick is to keep reminding yourself that the more you get up early, the easier it will become. Now that you have a better understanding of the status quo bias, think back to times in your life when you have attempted, or had the opportunity, to change something about your life but you failed to persevere because of your status quo bias. Maybe you found yourself saying things like, “Well, I’ve always done things like this so there’s no point in changing it now.” Or, “I can’t see that there’s any major problem here, so it doesn’t make sense to change anything.” Remember that the status quo bias is guaranteed to do one thing—and that is to