RSVP: 2022 Wharton Research: the MOST EFFECTIVE Way to Change

When Nick Winter was 26, he was so disappointed and frustrated by his life as a software coder that he decided to set some ambitious scary goals and pay a $14,000 fine to a cause that disgusted him – almost all the money he had at the time – if he didn’t reach his goals in three months.

He started by asking himself the questions:

“How do I really want to live?”

“What can I do to make life more well-rounded, more fulfilling?”

“What would be exciting?”

He realized that his life lacked adventure and that he wasn’t using the artistic side of his brain.

His long list of answers included skydiving (he had a lifelong fear of heights), learning to skateboard, lowering his 5K time by 5 minutes, and writing a book about his transformation.

Wharton professor Katy Milkman tells this story in her brilliant new book?How to Change.?Perhaps you’ve heard about the cash commitment strategy before: you agree to donate money to a cause that you would be ashamed to contribute to, and you do it as a way to motivate yourself. I had heard about it once or twice in the past but had instantly dismissed it as gimmicky, anecdotal and that I didn’t need that kind of leverage to motivate myself. Of course, I never had the courage to actually try it!

I now accept that I was wrong on both counts. My motivation levels are decent but the sobering reality for all of us is they get us to the level where we are today – and I want to be more.

How about you?

What captured my attention and won me over was realizing that Milkman is a legitimate expert on behavior change at one of the most prestigious business schools in the world. She has scrutinized the research for many years AND worked with numerous global companies in doing this work: helping them implement change. So when she writes that:?“cash commitment devices sound pretty bizarre to some people…but the thing is, they’ve proven highly effective?even if they are counterintuitive,” I was SOLD.

They are the?most proven way to change?– wow!

She gives another example. You’re trying to lose weight, are sitting in a restaurant waiting to order a salad and then at the neighboring table you see two huge, delicious juicy and divine-smelling burgers served. Could you resist? Many of us couldn’t. I know that’s exactly how I abandoned being a vegetarian in college! But then Milkman says: what if you had to pay a fine of $500 for eating the burger? Would you still eat it then? Most of us would decline.

Nick Winter went on to write a popular book,?The Motivation Hacker, about his experiences. He moved on professionally from being a bored code writer to develop the #1 app for learning to write Chinese characters and then a tech entrepreneur as CEO of CodeCombat which brings computer science to every kid in the world. And in that three-month period, he also skydived despite his life-long fear of heights and he took his girlfriend too!

This story had to sink in a little for me, but I kept coming back to:?“cash commitment devices sound pretty bizarre to some people…but the thing is, they’ve proven highly effective?even if they are counterintuitive,”

Not wanting to be accused by anyone reading this that I just like pontificating about interesting ideas, I decided to be my own guinea pig on this. I took the first step and asked myself:

What am I sick and tired of tolerating and need to change?now?

What would make life a lot more fun?

- and came up with 12 goals and then added three more over the next few days.

The main goal I want is to have 100 paying members in my new app community by Oct 15th?because after 20+ years of coaching I know what we all need to do to reach much bigger goals. If I miss the mark, well, you can see the check in the picture. It would be a totally appalling and humiliating outcome for me. Mind-bendingly revolting and unforgiveable. So please sign up for the app when it’s released (it’s only $40/month and gets you actively working on your most profitable habits consistently so you can make big shifts)! Even if it’s only as a political statement and you couldn’t care less about using the app to change your own life!

What’s funny is it then occurred to me how inspiring it would be to work with others who want the same level of change as me and Nick Winter. As I wrote my first draft of this article, I came up with an idea I'm incredibly excited about:

This would make a sensational mastermind group:?you come up with goals that would?truly transform your life in 12 weeks; one hour per week; 8 people; $5,000 plus your big fine to a cause you loathe. To remove some of the risk (but not the disgusting, motivating part), I will offer an 80% money-back guarantee ($4000) to any of the eight people who complete the program but are really dissatisfied. So please RSVP.?Let me know if you’re in and when you would like to start.

Some of my other 12 week goals include: Launching the mastermind with 8 participants; save 20%; 3000 push-ups per week; 1500 air squats per week; lose my belly paunch; one fun activity with my kids once/week; book flights for Christmas UK trip, set a date to go to Villa Park (to see Aston Villa, my favorite team), go for a ruck 3x/week. I like the book idea too but I’d rather write nine chapters with eight of them being the stories of other people – would you like to be featured? I’d like to raise my own stakes even higher but this isn’t a great season for me as my wife is away from home for over one of these three months so I will be solo parenting.

The FINE: pick a cause you detest. The more you find that cause repugnant, the more it will make you get moving. I picked Donald Trump’s re-election campaign because other than Putin there is no human I know of that I despise more (I don’t doubt there are more evil people there, but I don’t want to get off topic). My wife was totally horrified when I told her. It wasn’t easy to tell her at all. I blurted out something clumsy along the lines of: “I’ve got something that’s…err.. actually really hard to tell you...Look, I got this idea from a book…” God knows what went through her mind!!! She immediately suggested a couple of other causes that make our blood boil but I knew which cause was the most emotionally vested for me. You do too.

When doesn't this work??Milkman notes:?The biggest challenge with cash commitment devices isn’t their effectiveness; it’s getting people comfortable with the idea of using them.?Many people won’t take the risk. To me, this is where you have to make the rewards greater than the fine by setting some exciting targets. How painful is it to stay the same old same old?

Not everyone is truly committed to changing so that could count you out. The only tricky one in my opinion is “sometimes failure is out of your control” – e.g., a family emergency or injury to impede a health goal. I’ll be honest, I’m not sending in my check if there’s a tragedy beyond my control. To me that would defeat the object.

Lastly, if you pursue this, by all means set lots of goals but make only 1-2 of them your big focus areas otherwise you can get too distracted chasing too many rabbits. My two business goals are what I’m measuring most. The health ones make me feel better about myself and are fun challenges. The rest are quality of life and fun goals so they add the necessary spoonfuls of sugar – another key ingredient.

When not to do this:?If you’ve just had a baby, you’re taking care of a seriously ailing parent or you’re rehabbing from a surgery or injury – there are definitely some seasons in life when you can’t transform your life. Also, if you’re extremely pleased with your mojo and are having a great year so far, there’s no reason to disrupt it with this kind of reset.

What Milkman’s findings remind me are that - despite pleasure and inspiration - we are often more motivated by pain and desperation. At this point in my life I almost don't care, I just want to see significant positive change and I’m willing to try this. If you are bubbling a lot of frustration under the surface and spend too much time ignoring it, join me.

Don’t forget to RSVP! Group support and accountability will make a big difference and help us all from feeling less crazy than we already do!

To cash commitment devices!

Matt

Copyright Matt Anderson, 2023