Institute For The Future

Forget the carrot, I need the stickK (or do I?)

Quit smoking, lose weight, get in shape. Now that we are three weeks into 2010, how many of us need help sticking to our New Year's resolutions? Consider signing a "commitment contract" that would set forth, for example, an exercise goal over a period of time, and what it will cost you if you fail to meet that goal. Because loss aversion is a powerful psychological tool, the idea is that you will be more inclined to stick to the desired behavior (exercising) rather than incur a penalty.

 

stickK is here to help, and it takes the idea of a penalty one step further—to your social network. If you are unsuccessful at meeting your goal, stickK will let your friends know about it. And you wouldn't want to endure that embarrassment, now would you?

stickK was founded on the principle that creating incentives and assigning accountability are the two most important keys to achieving a goal.

Still skeptical that a Commitment Contract can help you lose weight or exercise more? Well, according to the website's FAQs, "Years of rigorous academic research conducted by the founders of stickK have proven that using Commitment Contracts can more than triple your chances of success!" And the founders are no slouches; they are: Dean Karlan, an Economics professor at Yale University, Ian Ayres, a Yale Law professor, and Jordan Goldberg, a student from Yale School of Management.

 

 

Frankly, I have been too chicken to try the StickK approach. I am afraid of the consequences of failure and as a result, I have been reluctant to go down this path. I don't know whether the founders intended the double entendre of the company name—it is most obviously intended to suggest the idea of sticking to a commitment, but it could also be interpreted in terms of the common "carrot or stick" idiom. These are very smart, clever people, after all—stickK, with the extra capital "K" appended to the word "stick," is a play on the shorthand symbol for "contract" used in legal writing.

 

 

 

Instead of using stickK, I have been considering another approach that helps some people stick to their health goals—tracking my progress. To that end, I have found TheCarrot.com (I have no idea why the site is so named) to be an incredibly comprehensive tracking platform. So far, signing up for TheCarrot hasn't made much of a difference for me (it might help if I actually used it), but some of the testimonials on the site reveal its potential as a powerful health tool:

I just recently started running and because it’s a new type of exercise for me, I felt like I needed a way to keep track of my progress to make sure I was building it into a habit. TheCarrot keeps me honest! I know that it’s there waiting for me to enter my data, so I’ll get lace up my running shoes even when it’s raining.

(I guess the thought of the site waiting for me to enter my data isn't compelling enough to motivate me.) On the other hand, I do relate to this observation:

As a practicing psychologist, I try to help my patients understand the relationship between diet, exercise, and their emotional well-being. TheCarrot helps you keep track of these variables so you can really pinpoint what you need to change to feel better.

 

I make no promises that either TheCarrot.com or stickK.com will help you keep your New Year's resolutions, but I do hope you find a way that works for you to achieve your health goals in 2010!