How I tricked myself into exercising regularly

…and why I think it'll work for everyone

I’ve always liked doing different sports. Playing soccer, beach volleyball, skiing, playing squash, and so on. After I stopped playing soccer in school, about 15 years ago, I only worked out every now and then. Often just once or twice a month. Maybe even less. But I wanted to change that, without being able.

Rewind to summer 2018. I was hiking with my mom and my brother. My brother told me had been working out three times a week for a few years. He has inner motivation to do it - completely opposite of me. We talked about ways to get me into it, and landed on a bet.

Every week you don’t work out 3 times, you pay the other one 20 USD

It’s incredibly simple, yet incredibly powerful. If I fail, I pay him. If he fails, he pays me. Since we started ~3,5 years – 200 weeks – ago, I’ve had to pay him maybe ten times. While he’s only paid me like 2-3 times… But that means I’ve been working out three times a week for ~95% of the last weeks¹. That’s a godzillion times better than what I did before!

Some thoughts and principles

• It’s trust-based. No reporting needed. You just say “I didn’t make make it this week” and transfer the money, so the overhead cost is practically nonexistent.

• Set a realistic, long-term goal. I’ve heard friends that make short-term bets - “work out 6 times a week for two months”. You can probably do it, but as soon as the bet is over, it’s back to old routines. 3 times a week is my long-term goal.

• You don’t need to have the same goal. Your goal might be twice a week, and your friend’s goal might be four times a week.

• A ramp-up period might be nice. The first 10 weeks my goal was 2 times per week, before I moved to 3 times per week.

• If you keep failing on a realistic exercise goal, i.e., it’s realistic given your time constraints and it’s a goal you want to achieve, turn up the bet. Everyone has their economic pain point.

• I wish I hadn’t learnt this, but running while hangover is absolutely doable.

I have friends who have been talking about their desire to work out regularly, and still they’ve written this method off. I believe it’s because they actually do not want it enough, but I’d love to hear other people’s thoughts of why this would not work and why.

1. Being sick is a valid exception, but for example, if you’re sick 3 days, you should be able to complete half-ish of your workouts.