Control Yourself
Would you hit the gym if every week you didn’t go $10 of yours went to the Democratic party?
This is one of many incentives you can choose on stickK.com, a website for people who need motivation to lose weight, stop smoking, save money, or anything else. In the latest edition of Reason, writer Daniel Akst has a long and intriguing piece on Americans’ struggle to commit to goals and see them through. He features stickK.com and other incentive programs as ways for Americans to voluntarily, independently control their appetites, without government intervention. From the piece:
We are fortunate to live in a time when the biggest problem that many of us face is coping with our own appetites in the face of freedom and affluence. Inevitably our failures—bankruptcy, obesity—bring calls for government to protect us from ourselves. But there are ways we can protect ourselves from ourselves without trampling the rights of others…
Inhibition often begins with the sense that somebody is watching; experiments have demonstrated that simply installing a mirror makes people behave more honestly when, for example, they pick up a newspaper and are supposed to leave their money on the honor system…
While loneliness subverts self-control, community can promote it in various ways, not least by minimizing social isolation and establishing norms. Communities are also social information systems, and being known in one is surely a moderating force, because reputations are valuable…
In America, it sometimes seems, you are either Homer Simpson or Ned Flanders. Homer is a slave to his appetites most of the time, although his fat-clogged heart is in the right place, while his neighbor Ned is a paragon of self-control, never letting his temper get the better of him even for a moment—but only because he's in thrall to a cult-like evangelism. Both men seem to be missing a fully functioning will…
Self-regulation will always be a challenge, but if somebody's going to be in charge, it might as well be ourselves.
How novel! In a time when schools are banning homemade lunches, it's refreshing and encouraging to read about our ability to regulate ourselves and our appetites! Shouldn’t stickK.com be the kind of website Michelle Obama promotes to help cure America's obesity?
- Comment (8)
- · Quote
- · UnfollowFollow (2)
Comments:
Jan '11
Re: Control Yourself
Encouraging individuals to exercise any amount of self-control just sucks all the fun out of being a nosy busy-body.
Nov '10
Re: Control Yourself
I agree that the key is who holds the strings. Government coercion or individual choice. Behavior modification is a useful tool, just not something the state ought to wield like a bludgeon.
I wonder if they have another option in which you make a political donation of, say, $2 per day. If you exercise it goes to the GOP and if you don't it goes to the Democrat party. Carrot and stick.
Re: Control Yourself
Interesting post, Lauren. I'm habitually ambivalent about this particular form of self-help. To the extent that self-imposed material incentives can actually change behavior for the better, I'm all for it. But I would hope that's only a weigh station on the road to actually developing the firmness of will to engage in such positive pursuits on the merits.
Still, I think that Benjamin Franklin, that paragon of self-improvement, would approve. And thus I can do no other.
Sep '10
Re: Control Yourself
I'd urge you all to read The Shallows by Nicholas Carr. Our fanatical devotion to interruptive technology is making it unlikely that we'll be able to achieve anything like an ascetic discipline over our wills until we take control of our own minds.
Feb '11
Re: Control Yourself
I completely agree with your comment. Self-discipline is terribly out of style. I find the stickK.com clever, and perhaps helpful for many, but a sad reminder that many people can't stay healthy by simply eating well by will, on their own. I'm the ultimate anti-dieter. I believe in happy, wholesome eating, real food (yes, butter, cream, red meat, etc.), in natural moderation, with outdoor exercise and good sleep. I'm irked by people who can't stay at a healthy weight unless they're colon-cleansing, or on some all-carrot diet. Also, our popular obsession with no-fat is so flawed - the overweight person chowing down on fat free Weight Watchers cookies thinks a bite of Brie will kill them. It's not the Brie, folks.
Re: Control Yourself
Okay, I'll admit it, right here in public: I just opened a StickK account to force myself to shake off a little weight.
If this works, Lauren, I'll be thanking you. If not? Hm....
Re: Control Yourself
Peter Robinson: Okay, I'll admit it, right here in public: I just opened a StickK account to force myself to shake off a little weight.
If this works, Lauren, I'll be thanking you. If not? Hm.... · Apr 20 at 12:51pm
Who are you donating the $$ to? The Democratic Party? Obama's re-election campaign? I'd gladly volunteer to take your money in the event of your failure :)
This reminds me of that program you pay money for to shut off your internet so you can work without distraction. I'll never understand why you don't just flip the switch on your wireless router.
Jan '11
Re: Control Yourself
I thought that is why you got sick and started making meth in your kitchen. Nothing like the flu to drop a few lbs.