Things you want to want to do.

So this is a simultaneously brilliant and terrible idea from a modern economics professor.

Most of us are better at finding thing we wished we did more often than we are at actually doing them. Some things that come to mind are studying (school, chess, or otherwise), exercise, diets, smoking, etc. I'm sure there are a few weirdos out there that have no problem with any of these, but for the rest of us, what I'm about to introduce might make the game a little more interesting. The idea is to commit yourself so fully that you can't back out later, even if you want to. You figuratively lash yourself to the ship. There is an interesting article at slate on these "precommitment devices".

The most sophisticated option mentioned in the article is a service called stickK. They offer commitment contracts where you set a monetary value on achieving your goals. Basically you give them your credit card information, set a goal for yourself and a price of failure. They then ask for updates, either from you or a referee of your choosing. If you fulfill your goal for the week you keep your money and you succeeded in your goal, great! If you fail, you lose the money and you can decide where it goes, a friend, a charity, or a political agenda you hate. Of course you have to decide where the money goes before you fail, if it's going to someplace you hate you'd better not fail.

I love these really original ideas coming out of economics, so I'm gonna give it a shot and see if it helps. I haven't yet decided how much money to risk on getting in shape but I figure it's got to be enough that I'll miss without being so much that I'll be financially damaged. I'll let you know how it goes.