Most people have goals to get ahead and even know, in principle, what steps to take to achieve them, but just keep not taking those steps. For instance, a successful designer does beautiful art on the ...

Mann refers to these situations as “oopsie” jobs—roles that last less than three months but were intended to be longer.

Breaking a promise is costly, but exceeding it might not be worth the effort. That’s the main finding in work by Chicago Booth’s Nicholas Epley and University of California, San Diego’s Ayelet Gneezy.