Here’s an interesting concept: instead of being ‘on your honor’ to stick to a goal, try Stickking to it.  The clever minds at Yale University have set up a website that will allow you to set up a contract on yourself.  The idea behind it - you’ll be more apt to accomplish a goal when you’ve got money riding on the deal.

Basics of Stickk 

In the Stickk world, you set up a contract and put money on it.  Along the path towards your final goal, you have check-ins where you have to record your success or failure.  Depending on that check-in, the money associated with the contract will either go back to you if you succeed or will go to a specified recipient should you fail.  That recipient can be a charity (United Way, UNICEF, Doctors Without Borders, etc.), or if you’re really daring, an anti-charity (NRA, Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence, etc.). 

As a test, I decided to open a contract to lose 15 lbs by June 10th, which works out to a pound a week.  When you open a weight loss contract, the most they will allow you to lose is two lbs per week.  They’ve set it up so that your weekly target adapts to your previous weigh-in if you miss your target.  For instance, if I gained a pound one week, I would not then have to lose an extra pound to make up for it the next week.  However, if I lose five pounds one week, I could then potentially gain back three the following week and still be ok since I would still have a net two-pound loss over those two weeks.

My experience at Stickk so far:

• Goal: Lose a total of 15 pounds by 6/10/08
• Contract Amount: $30 ($2 per weekly weigh-in)
• Start Date: 2/24/08
• Total weight loss as of 3/23: 4 lbs.

Some Areas for Improvement

Stickk is a great concept, and could potentially help many people.  In my opinion, though, there are a few opportunities for improvement:

• Larger, More Accessible Community: It’s probably a function of the new-ness of the website, but the community needs to be built up.  It would be nice to have more people to chat with about goals. (wink, wink, nudge, nudge!)
• Add the Ability to Specify a Charity: I would have liked to have been able to specify exactly which charity my money will go to if I don’t succeed.  Instead, though, they randomly select the charity themselves.  If you go with an anti-charity, however, you can choose exactly which one gets the money.
• Increase the Anti-Charity Options: The anti-charities (from my perspective) are not exactly “anti”.  I’m sure there are people out there who would not want to donate money to organizations like the Nature Conservancy or the Pro-Choice America Foundation, but I for one would be OK with it.  In fact, there’s only one anti-charity in the list that I would personally ever select.

The Bottom Line

All in all, I’m pro-Stickk.  It’s an excellent chance to really put yourself to the test.  It’s helped me to stay focused on my goal, which, in the long run, will help improve my quality of life.  Besides, if all it takes is a little money riding on the deal to help you achieve your goals, why not give it a shot?