stickk to it!!

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kermiehiho
kermiehiho Posts: 193 Member
in Motivation and Support
Hi Everyone,
Found an awesome site to help you stick to your goals (doesn't have to be weight-related, although that's what I'm using it for, for now). It's stickk.com You can set up your account so that if you don't check in or don't meet your goal by the weekly deadline, money (of an amount of your choosing) gets deducted from your credit card and donated to an un-charity (a charity whose mission you do not support - gun control, gay marriage, abortion, political parties, for example). You could have it donated to a charity you DO support, if you like, but for myself, I feel the idea of giving to an undesirable charity is more loathsome, and therefore a more powerful motivator, haha ("Those punks will get that $5 over my dead body!" or in this case, my trim, fit, and strong body, grr!).

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  • tommygirl15
    tommygirl15 Posts: 1,012 Member
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    What'll they think of next!
  • kamiAK
    kamiAK Posts: 100 Member
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    sounds dangerous to me...i wouldn't trust this site to automatically take money out
  • dorothytd
    dorothytd Posts: 1,138 Member
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    The online version of a "swear jar," lol! Interesting concept and I am definitely going to mention it to my friend who is very financially driven.
  • khall86790
    khall86790 Posts: 1,100 Member
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    Lol that is crazy, not sure I will be jumping on board but it's an effective idea I suppose!
  • beeminder
    beeminder Posts: 1
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    Ooh, and don't forget Beeminder which is a more data-oriented version of StickK.

    -- Danny of Beeminder

    PS: I also know the founders of StickK and have tried it personally and am happy to answer questions about them or, of course, Beeminder. You know, if you want a ridiculously biased take on them. :)
  • andilion
    andilion Posts: 44 Member
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    I'm also using stickk and it's been great to me so far (although as a data and economics person, I kind of wish I had known about Beeminder before!!). I have a modest weekly weight loss goal. I intentionally set it more modestly than my true goals to account for potential plateau weeks. If I don't meet it, my credit card gets charged and that money gets donated to an organization I really dislike. Stickk calls them Anti-Charities. (You don't have to do this. Stickk allows you to use other kinds of stakes, including sending money to your friends or not using money at all, but the thought of my money going to this organization I dislike is a great motivator for me.)

    Since my contract started 9 weeks ago, I haven't failed once. It just isn't an option. If I have a bad meal, instead of consoling myself that I'll "restart" my diet in a few days or a week, I have no choice but to get back on the horse immediately.

    It sounds a little weird, but the way it works is actually pretty compelling. Making good decisions about food and exercise can be extremely difficult because our brains have a hard time weighing a short term benefit (tasty food) versus a distant, long term goal (weight loss). It's much easier for the short term benefit to win out. Some people have strong enough intrinsic motivation to overcome this, but many of us (including me) don't. Commitment contracts work by giving you a very strong short term incentive to make better choices.

    Stickk and Beeminder aren't the only ways to make commitment contracts for weight loss (see http://blog.beeminder.com/competitors/). The Beeminder blog also lists some important caveats for using Stickk: http://blog.beeminder.com/stickk/.

    I think for me personally, Stickk's option to have an Anti-Charity be the benefactor of my failures is the most important feature of my commitment contract. If Beeminder added a similar feature, I'd definitely switch.

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