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.
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.
That works as long as you're used and comfortable to act in the scope of constraints set. If you're geared towards circumventing the constraint that method is a one shot with no outcome.
It works. There’s an app for that, including the competition: https://rckt.fit/download