Burn the money – How to do things you don’t want to do
We all have things we want to do, but we struggle to find the motivation or time. This is the constant relationship I have with working out. I hate working out. I know it’s important, but I just hate it. So after reading the chapter Why we don’t do what we want to do in Predictably Irrational, I had an idea:
I would withdraw my monthly budget of spending money, in cash and then I’d then give it to my trusty wife. I asked her to dole it out to me in 12 chunks (three times a week for four weeks) and I’d only get it if I worked out. Here’s the kicker: if I didn’t go to the gym, I instructed her to burn the money.
Nothing good could come of me not working out – the money couldn’t go to charity, my wife, a savings fund … nothing. It had to be burned.
Guess what? I’ve worked out three times a week since the beggining of January, without missing a single day. It works.
[Photo credit: http://flickr.com/photos/whitecatsg]
