Or, to put it another way, give yourself some goddamn self-respect.

Deprong Mori

This concept is simple in its design. Personally, I would not want to live with such a negative mindset.

At this point, you should look into the mirror and consider if your overall quality of life is better by doing it this way, wading in a river of resentment, guilt, and denial.

Deprong Mori

Not a bad idea. After getting a couple of emails reminding me how much money I'm losing by not going, and I'm sure that I'll save that money by canceling my membership.

IAmMarchHare

@Deprong Mori: I don't like Merlin Mann's take on it either. The point is to have a single "day of reckoning" that you're striving to avoid - one with a relatively large risk, rather than having a constant reminder of small losses.

Read the original NPR piece here: [www.npr.org]

joelena

@Kevin Purdy: Err, I meant: ... organizing bills (which you can actually lose money by not doing).

Kevin Purdy

@Deprong Mori: In all things, moderation, I suppose. I wouldn't set up an entire lifestyle of calling myself a wasteful, lazy, money-burning loser, but for things like a fitness plan, organizing bills (which can actually lose you money), or avoiding a coffee-stand habit, it might just work a little better than giving yourself a pat on the back.

Kevin Purdy

Don't most gym memberships have heavy cancellation fees? Sorry, I exercise at home three times a week, so I'm ignorant on such matters.

@Kevin Purdy:

Again, that's not the way I live my life. For sure, I'm my own toughest critic, but I don't need to configure a nagbot.

Maybe that's why I'm a bachelor and happy because of it. :)

Deprong Mori

"Loss Aversion" sounds to me like cleverly repackaged "guilt," an old and much-maligned (if not necessarily ineffective) motivator.

FrisbeeDragon

I can't see this working for me...

Let's say that I spent 60 bucks a month for a gym membership, and I only worked out only 3 times a week.

An email that tells me I'm wasting 5 dollars by not working out isn't going to encourage me to go. I can easily handle wasting five bucks.

JeffCarr

All I know is it does work. I have a monthly unlimited pass to the place I do yoga and if I try to back out from going, thinking about the money I would be wasting keeps me going. It's all about doing whatever you can do to make something that is beneficial for you a habit, and once it becomes a habit then it really does not matter if some 'negative' motivation got you there.

lefdabldg

Back in business school, they teach you not to care about "sunk costs" such as not using a gym membership daily. You have spent the money, you can not get it back. Just my two cents.

Locoman

Basic decision psychology has shown that humans are more risk averse than they are willing to chance a big payoff - i.e. a bird in the hand... But there is also the psychology of "doubling down. When we are in a negative (loss) position, we are more willing to gamble on the big payoff. This is one reason why most lottery gamblers are in the lower economic demographic. Feeling they're so far behind on financial security that they'll never catch up, they're willing to risk limited funds on a big payoff.

Once you taken a perceived loss (even if it's really a sunk cost), it's easy to engage in negative behaviours. In this case, people convince them selves that they can make up for lost workouts by going less often but exercising longer. Unfortunately, more frequent, shorter workouts are usually healthier.

So casting the missed workouts as a financial loss changes the basic psychology of why you exercise from a health to a monetary equation. And most people make financial decisions based on emotion as much or more than the algebra, which leads to a lot of poor decisions. Or to put it another way, exercise is a one-sided transaction. Finance is a zero sum game. For every winner, there has to be a loser. And most of us are usually losers.

Negative psychology rarely encourages positive results.

imajoebob

Two words. Sunk. Cost. Once the money is (as far as you're/I'm concerned) spent, then it shouldn't/doesn't affect your behaviour on a daily basis.

I'm working on the idea that the $50 I spend per month is something I should be maximizing the value of, but in general I view it as "oh hell, it's 6:30 am and I can either get up today and try to extract as much as I can from money that's already gone OR I can decide that I want to maximize my happiness right now (i.e. sleep more!) and ignore money that I cannot affect the expending of.

Oh, sunk cost, how brilliant yet evil a concept you are...

Kangarara

I suspect the data you can generate is far more useful at particular flashpoints. If I recorded 83 gym visits over twelve months, then when my membership comes up for renewal I can calculate how much each visit cost me and if it is worth sinking more cash into the pursuit.
Big difference: nagging vs. providing timely information.

longbourne

Loss aversion is one of the observed effects of prospect theory (it's one of comps themes, so I'm counting this comment as studying). The basic premise of prospect theory is that we make decisions based on perceived gains/losses relative to a reference point. That reference point is usually operationalized as the status quo, but it's really quite fungible. Specifically, we incorporate gains into our reference point much faster than we incorporate losses. In other words, while a gym membership may represent sunk costs that should have no effect on our decision, we don't perceive those costs as "sunk" immediately. I haven't lost that money until I have gotten to the point where I can't get value for it. As long as I can still get value out of the investment, I won't perceive the money as lost. Because we are more willing to take action to prevent loss than to incur gain (back to loss aversion), taking advantage of my sunk costs is a way of preventing loss.

Bubarubu

I agree with many of the above posts suggesting that negative reinforcement (read:guilt) does not work. Instead, like a previous post here, I consider chains. The idea was geared toward writing but it could be applied to anything such as building the habit of exercising.

@JeffCarr: It is interesting to see how people yourself see things. There is an acceptable loss value. Obviously this amount depends on the individual. It also depends on the breaking point where you start feeling that you gain value from a given action, in your case using the gym.

ariswadkar

That method sounds really stressful, like running from a pack of dogs.

ewonk

@Locoman: I agree, this isn't a useful tool for "sunk costs", but it worked wonders for my soda habit. I calculated how much money I spent a month buying soda and taped it to my wallet. It became an effective reminder every time I paid for something.

halibetlector