So Money with Farnoosh Torabi · Wednesday, September 23, 2026
Monica Packer reframes the purpose of habits, stating they should be supportive helpers rather than strict prescriptions. She emphasizes that habits are meant to serve individuals and should be designed to reflect lived realities, leading to more sustainable and effective practices.
“Because going back to the big definition we want people to embody as habits are supportive. That's their job. They're helpers. They're their job is to serve us, not us serving them.”
“And when we make that switch, then there's so much opportunity to design habits that actually do that, to approach them in ways that are more reasonable and nuanced and reflective of the lived realities we have instead of like the some imaginary robot life that isn't available to us.”
“And that means we also have habits that are more sustainable, which is really what we want. Habits that stick.”