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]
14 Comments, Comment or Ping
Trin
Wow- That is admirable discipline! You are making me think, sir, of what areas that I hate to improve on. Thank you for great insight!
:D
Trin
@KatrinaG
Jan 18th, 2009
gridinoc
I wonder when gyms will pick up the idea and charge you more for not attending.
Jan 18th, 2009
Gareth Poole
fantastic idea. not so student friendly though!
Jan 18th, 2009
Andrew Duck
I've been looking for a motivation to work out. I like it.
Jan 18th, 2009
Sean Nieuwoudt
Nice one Ryan, albeit on the extreme side….
Jan 18th, 2009
George palmer
You could start a local training group. I dragged a friend around Clapham Common several weeks ago and word has started to spread – we're now up to 8 people in just a few weeks. The reason it works? If you agree to meet someone at a certain time and place it's much harder to break that commitment than one with yourself. In reality most people want to be in good shape they just lack the motivation/commitment/confidence to do so.
If people come back a second time (which so far everyone else has) we start to fine them £2 if they don't turn up at future sessions. So far we've not had to issue fines but if we do all the proceeds go behind the bar for a social.
Jan 18th, 2009
mleon010
That's awesome Ryan. Keep up the gym going!
Jan 18th, 2009
Jason
Ryan,
Can’t think of anything worse in the current climate than burning money. I hope that was a joke.
Jason
Jan 18th, 2009
Ryan Carson
Nope, not a joke. I’m talking about a small amount of spending money I’ve budgeted for the month. It had to be extreme or it wouldn’t cause me to act – that’s the whole point.
Jan 18th, 2009
Kilian Valkhof
That's quite extreme in my opinion! If it works, alright, but once you actually start burning money, it becomes useless ;) My problem with exercise is that I couldn't find a worthy/fun goal. Sure, I want to get fit and all, but what good will that do me? And when will I get there?
I find it much easier to do things when there is a clearly defined goal and the steps to get to there are defined as well. I'm currently doing the hundredpushups exercise and really dig the way that works, it really tickles my inner "workout geek" with the game elements stuck in there.
Jan 18th, 2009
Ryan Carson
I guess I'll let you know if I ever have to burn some cash!
Jan 18th, 2009
Jen
The trick to sticking with exercise is finding something you enjoy. Getting on a treadmill just sucks. But if you only do it when you can’t get to a place you love to hike, so that you’ll enjoy your hikes more — it’s different. Try sculling, biking, hiking, yoga, dance, surf, skate, snowboard, xc-ski..
Money just doesn’t motivate me.
Jan 19th, 2009
ajleon
First of all, Ryan, MUCH respect for your level of dedication to your goal. You have identified something you want to achieve, and architected a method to motivate yourself to achieve it. I don't think that is extreme at all, it makes perfect sense.
Working out is something that, at first, is a pain in the ass for everyone; but if you commit to consistency, it becomes a repose from the everyday stresses of life – and you end up feelin so damn good when you're done.
Last year as my wife and I were planning our wedding, I was so discouraged because of how much I had let myself go. I made a massive commitment to myself to start living a healthy and fitness oriented lifestyle.
There are two things that I did that were HUGE:
1) I set measurable and identifiable goals & recorded my progress.
Without some metric (I suggest body fat %) with which to judge your success within a few months you may get discouraged and lose motivation.
2) TAKE PHOTOS!
Some dude told me to do right when I started because he said that my mind would play tricks on me at some point, but if I had proof to verify my progress I would be in better shape. It's the equivalent of a company trying to compare this year's Gross Margin to last year's except all they have is this year's financials. You can "feel" and "think" you were more profitable, but unless you have a snapshot of last year, you can't really prove it to your investors.
Here is my Before & After set (http://tinyurl.com/9q83bv)
Some cool tools that I am using this year to help keep me on track are:
http://www.thenakedtrainer.net(by the founder of Plan HQ)
http://caloriecount.about.com
Sorry for the ridiculously long post :)
Jan 20th, 2009
John Gallagher
Ryan
Well, it's one way of going about forcing yourself to work out, certainly. Personally, I've found that if I'm forcing myself to do exercise, it won't last. It's got to be enjoyable to me, and that's why I've never signed up to a gym – it's not a particularly enjoyable experience. I do think part of this is that it's a really artificial environment. Not wanting to get too biological, but our ancient ancesters probably evolved using physical activity as a means to an end – hunting. And they always did it outside, of course. So I think there's something unnatural about exercising on a treadmill inside. That's not to say it doesn't work for loads of people, but for me I prefer to do something that is outside
and that I enjoy.
I think life is too short to keep forcing yourself to do things you don't really want to do. There is, of course, a time and a place for this, but I don't think it should be a frequent occurrence. You're great at what you do precisely because you love it so much. I'd bet that although you work really hard, you don't force yourself to do this most of the time (although of course there are moments for every entrepreneur where they have to push through fear and doubt). So what I try to do is find an activity that I enjoy. For me, this is running. At school, I was always last to be picked for any team and I hated sport with a passion. As an adult, I've discovered that a lot of my hatred wasn't related to the activity, but more the mentality that grew around it. When I got running on my own I found that it's a really great way to kick off your day and it feels great to be outside, connecting with the outside world, especially as I spend so much time on my computer.
Is the gym system still working for you? Have you tried different sports? I've found that something like tennis is fantastic fun and gives you an incredible workout. And being so tall I bet with a bit of practice you could really toast most other competitors. There are so many options out there to try – last year I took a Street Dance class and it really was superb fun.
One last thing – the Nike and iPod combination for running make it fun and let me see how many calories I've burnt and how far I've run. Fantastic!
Mar 11th, 2009
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