
The Strange But Effective Way I Stick to Hard Goals - joeyespo
http://www.nirandfar.com/2016/01/habits-overhyped-heres-really-works.html
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rodionos
For me the best habits and skills I developed happened when a burn action
developed into an enjoyable action, in article's terms. For instance, I once
used to work as a windsurfing instructor. On average it takes 10 lessons for a
beginner to catch the wind. What I saw was that most people would quit because
the first 10 lessons are all 'burn'. Imagine pulling out a heavy sail out of
water for an hour straight just to fall back into the water. But, on your 10th
you catch the wind and it's fun like nothing else (almost). The problem is
that you don't see a gradual increase in enjoyment until you start surfing.
What I'm saying is sometimes burn takes a while until you see results.

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johnmorrow
Doesn't explain how to stick to the hard goal of burning a $100 bill every
time you don't go to the gym. I just know that I would stop doing this as soon
as it came time to burn the money. What do I do when I don't burn the $100
bill? Burn a $100 bill?

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function_seven
If you breach your self-contract by not burning the money, you then have to
burn $200!

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kbutler
tl;dr increase stake in the goal by committing to destroy $100 bill if you
don't.

With a self-aggrandizing tone and link-bait "strange way" I found off-putting.

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function_seven
Not to mention all the self-quotes inviting you to tweet them out. Sorry, but
this article is drivel. It fails to mention the third choice: don't do the
routine _and_ don't burn the money.

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reddytowns
This idea seems more like how to stick to doing something you don't like,
rather than how to stick to a goal. The seem similar but the latter implies
you have a choice in how to accomplish it.

If you assume that a goal is a long term accomplishment and the strategies you
use are short term, then something like this will allow you to stick to a
strategy. However, done to excess would imply doing things you hate all the
time, against the peril of doing things you hate more, which will make your
life miserable.

This line of thinking reminds me of most school systems, which uses somewhat
the same strategy, ie. do this simple task, now, or in the immediate future,
to some exact specification, and if you don't do it properly you'll get a bad
grade.

I find it much more helpful to tread lightly when considering doing things you
don't like in order to accomplish a goal. If you can find a way where you are
enjoying yourself and working towards a goal at the same time, it is much
better even if it seems likely to cause you to take longer at doing it.

For instance, I often switch projects during the day, rather than work on only
a single project, getting bored with it, but pushing on and hoping that I'll
get through it quick and be able to go onto the next one. By switching it up,
not only am I happier and actually excited to work on the stuff I do, but
there is a synergistic effect, since the concepts of one of the projects often
applies to the others as well.

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freshfey
It's a similar concept that Tim Ferriss talked about in 4 Hour Chef. You'd
(with a friend for accountability) put money in an escrow account for an
organization you absolutely despise (political, religious, etc). If you fail
on keeping your promise (in this case going to the gym) the money would be
released. I think he calls it the Stickk method (there is even a site
dedicated to it: [http://www.stickk.com/](http://www.stickk.com/))

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nefitty
Using Stickk I quit drinking completely for six months. There were some
negligible lapses, but overall utilizing this loss aversion technique was a
positive experience for me. I will try it again soon for other long-term
goals.

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scottlocklin
Ridiculous. The effective way to stick to hard goals is to figure out how to
enjoy them. Weight lifting is difficult and strenuous, and when I first
encountered it I found it ridiculous and demeaning (because I was terrible at
it). I set goals, researched it, and did it long enough it became a habit I
can't live without. Not doing it is more psychologically and physically
painful to me than breaking my back on deadlifts at this point. Same thing
took place learning physics, software development and machine learning.

I'm presently experiencing the lighting hundred dollar bills on fire every day
(except they're thousand dollar bills) in that I've started a company. This is
painful, and not in a motivating way. The easiest thing to do is to stop
lighting money on fire and get a day job. It would be a lot easier to quit
lighting money on fire and lifting weights if lighting money on fire was the
only thing keeping me going to the gym.

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petercooper
I used to suffer from compulsions and developed a related trick to break their
grip that normal willpower just couldn't provide. Sufferers will be familiar
with the 'you must do X, otherwise Y might happen' state (where X is often
something pointless and Y is something 'bad' \- dying or similar). I found a
way to extend that thought with '.. or, actually, if I _do_ do X, Y WILL
happen' \- hence the best move became not to play. Now years on, this habit
seems to have proven enough for my brain to 'snap out' of a compulsion and
eliminate the majority of their negative impact.

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mettamage
Didn't read the article, but the comments here remind me of initiatives like
these: [http://www.pactapp.com/](http://www.pactapp.com/)

