If You Pay For It, Will You Do It?
October 12, 2009 by Miranda Marquit
Filed under Finance
I’ve been thinking about money as a motivator a lot lately. PF Firewall wrote a post recently about a site that is providing a cash incentive for those who are obese to lose within in a year. It’s an interesting concept. I don’t qualify because, though I am not overjoyed with my weight, I am at the upper 
end of what is considered “healthy” for my age and height. So, since no one will be paying me to lose a little weight and be a little healthier, I though that perhaps I would join a gym.
Even though I know that there are other ways to exercise that are much cheaper (or free), the fact of the matter is that I am not motivated enough to do these things. So I went ahead and joined the gym. I got a student discount because my husband is a student, and I have a spouse student ID. (Yes, I was upfront about my situation, and told them that I wasn’t a student myself.) I figure that because I am paying to use the facilities, I will be more likely to, well, use them.
It got me thinking about how much more likely we are to follow through with something if we’ve got something invested in it. You’d think that looking better and feeling healthier would be enough, but — witness millions of Americans — it isn’t. However, for me, paying for something is a huge motivator. So I’m hitting gym the pool to swim laps three days a week.
Are you more likely to follow through with something if you are paying for it?
Image source: alykat via Flickr
I agree with your view, sadly health alone is just not enough to motivate most people. That is one reason I thought the program I posted about was so great. Not only do they pay you for losing weight, you can invest in yourself thus creating double the motivation (and quadruple the cash if you succeed) for those like you and me that feel more tied to something we have invested in.
I look forward to getting in better shape and apparently many of our peers across the blogosphere are doing the same thing so I look forward to witnessing everyone elses health as well. Good luck to you.