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September 16, 2011 7 Comments

Stickk to it. (Sorry, grammar police. That’s not a typo.)

Goal setting

Photo by Angie Torres / by NCND 2.0 CC

I’ve been experimenting with a site called StickK. The purpose of the site is to make you accountable to your goals. How do they do that? Well, you pledge that if you don’t meet your goal you’ll pay for it, literally. You submit your credit card information and authorize a dollar amount of your choice to go to a charity or anti-charity or a friend if you fail to meet your goal. An anti-charity is a charity for a cause you absolutely do not believe in. StickK conveniently provides several charities both for and against controversial topics like abortion, gay marriage, gun control, the environment, and the president you hate.

StickK charities

You choose someone to be your referee who will check in once a week and report on your progress. You can also be your own referee, but having someone else do it, someone who’s willing to pull the trigger, is more effective.

The concept behind the site is the same as a principle of human psychology that was covered in a segment of the RadioLab podcast called “You vs. You.” On that show a life-long smoker is trying to quit. She’s at a disadvantage because humans find things that are offered right now to be more appealing than things offered far off in the future. So, the appeal of reducing her cancer risk and saving money otherwise spent on cigarettes seems less appealing than the thought of having a smoke right now. Ultimately it’s a battle against time, of now vs. later. Brain scans show that different parts of the brain actually battle this out.

To twist that concept to her advantage, she tells a friend that if she ever smokes again she’ll give $5000 to the Ku Klux Klan. The thought of giving the KKK money right now outweighs her desire to have a cigarette right now. The long-term plan is tied into an immediate feeling, bringing both fights into the present.

StickK makes it hard to cancel the goal. You have to email the support staff to get it deleted or to reduce how many weeks you’ve committed to achieving the goal. My goal is to get up by a certain time every morning. I will not tell you the time because you will laugh at me and say, “Really, Jennette? You can’t get up by that time every morning?” It is the danger of being a freelancer. I am only accountable to myself and my clients, and none of my clients have demanded that I get up earlier.

However, I didn’t get a referee for my goal. I chose to self report on it. Aaaaaaaaannnnnd…that hasn’t worked, obviously. It’s about effective as getting the oil industry to self-moderate safety regulations. So, if I really want to do this I’ll have to get someone to be my referee, someone who will actually rat me out if I fail.

If it works I might set some other goals, like exercising for X days a week, or limiting myself to only X junk food snacks a week. Hopefully I will Stickk to it.

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Leave a Comment (7) Read more about: anti-charity, charity, contract, goals, self-reporting, stickk

Jennette Fulda is the author of:

Chocolate & Vicodin: My Quest for Relief from the Headache that Wouldn't Go Away

"Smart, unflinchingly honest, and laugh-out-loud funny."

- Lisa Genova, New York Times best-selling author of Still Alice

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Comments

  1. Lisa says

    September 16, 2011 at 4:37 pm

    I’ll be your referee! I’m planning on joining stickK, too, in order to have a tidy house every evening. It’s going to be rough, since I don’t have anyone here to be accountable for, and I’m known for my procrastination, but I do have a deadline, too, and a husband who deserves to come home to a tidy house.

    Reply
  2. Debby says

    September 16, 2011 at 6:19 pm

    I’m so pathetic that I just don’t even bother setting goals. StickK would feel like it had been StuckK by the time I was through with it. 🙂

    Reply
  3. Debbi says

    September 17, 2011 at 7:03 am

    It shows the absolute gut-level strength of my commitment that I won’t even go look at the website. Maybe later … I’m the great procrastinator, always wishing for a solution and when it’s apparently dropped into my virtual lap, I don’t even want to go there. Sigh.

    Reply
  4. Debbi Does Dinner Healthy says

    September 18, 2011 at 12:45 am

    I’ve heard of this, an online friend uses it. I don’t think it worked with her efforts to lose weight. Maybe she rationalized that the KKK could have the money if she could just have a brownie. I so could see myself doing that after awhile. 🙂

    Hey, I remember being alarmed when someone would expect me to be at an appointment at like 9 or 10, I’d think, “Wow, I’m going to have to get up early!” Of course, that was before kids.

    Hope it works for you. Let us know if you StickK with it and get up! We all need someone or something to be accountable to, it helps. Hopefully.

    Reply
  5. Melanie Schneider says

    September 19, 2011 at 12:34 am

    This is an absolutely fantastic website! I am an aspiring health and wellness coach and I would love to share this with my blog followers. As a very self-motivated individual, sometimes I need to take a step back and realize that other individuals have a very hard time committing to their goals. This is a fantastic and rather funny way of putting goal-setting in perspective for clients. Hey – whatever works for you! Health and wellness is such an individualistic journey so if you need to threaten to pay the devil to avoid some behavior, by all means go for it!

    Reply
  6. Trula says

    September 19, 2011 at 6:22 pm

    That site kinda reminds me of 43things.com, another goal-oriented site. It sounds intriguing!

    Reply
  7. Headacheslayer says

    September 22, 2011 at 3:59 am

    Ok, VERY cool idea and one I would COMPLETELY SUCKK at.

    Really. I managed to take a shower today.

    GOAL!

    I would either be broke or have such pathetic goals a guppy could meet them. And I’d still fail.

    Count me as a cheerleader for you though–cuz you are full of awesomeness!

    And hey “getting up in the morning”– you are probably not a morning person. Many creative people aren’t. I do my best work in the middle of the night. Either I’m creative or a vampire.
    xo

    Reply

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