Site helps New Year's resolutions stick

I'm under contract for my New Year's resolutions.

If I break them, I'll owe money to a charity I'd rather not support.

I've entered into a "commitment contract" at stickK.com. For each week I fail to meet my goals, I'll be making a credit card donation to what the Web site calls an anti-charity.

My goals range from saving my abs (yoga and/or weight training six times a week) to saving the world (five acts of kindness a week).

There's another one on making my English-major mind more numbers/tech friendly (three hours a week) - which is how I ended up at stickK.com in the first place. I had just read a book on data bases called "Super Crunchers: Why Thinking-By-Numbers is the New Way to Be Smart."

At the end of the book, its author, Yale economist Ian Ayres, touted his new project: stickK.com. The idea is that people are more likely to make the changes they want to make if they put their reputations - or, more powerfully, their money - on the line.

The Web site formalizes that idea by allowing you to make a contract with yourself that's more concrete than, say, the willpower I had been trying to use on the weight-training goal, leading to maybe half a dozen workouts in about as many years. (What? The muscles need time recover.)

"What's brilliant about this concept," said stickK's clearly enthused CEO, Jordan Goldberg, is that it "works in tandem with whatever your particular method is.... We're giving you ways that motivate you to lose weight or quit something or get better grades."

Goldberg said that the site, which was launched in January 2008, has 26,000 registered users. Since this New Year's, 150 to 200 new folks have been joining a day.

I actually got a jump on them by joining the last week of December when I checked out the site for the first time.

I had a bunch of options. I didn't have to stake any money at all - it could have just been me proclaiming to the world what my goals are.

But I knew that wouldn't be enough for me.

So, I went with the money option - $25 a week - and gave my credit card number. I could have chosen to have money automatically go to a charity I do believe in. Or to a friend or an enemy.

But, I know myself too well. If my failing to do sit-ups means a friend or a charity I believe in benefits, I'll stay on the couch nobly eating potato chips while watching "Two and A Half Men" reruns.

Since I don't really have any enemies - that I know of anyway - I decided to go with the anti-charity option. I won't tell you which one because it's a perfectly fine cause that good people choose to give to. Their anti-charities could well be causes that I've been funding for years.

Even though I know it wouldn't be the end of the world if my money went to this charity, I have to say just the thought caused me to dig out my dumbbells and make a tasty beef stir fry (three times a week I have to make a home-cooked meal - no frozen taquitos).

The method isn't perfect. I have important, but amorphous, goals that don't quite lend themselves to measurement. In the next year I've vowed to not let the perfect be the enemy of the good, figuring positive action that's a little clunky in its execution is better than the most perfect grand dream that exists only in the ether.

But how do you measure that? I will be imperfect four times this week? (Got that covered, by the way.)

And, I will no doubt fudge when it gets down to the wire and I have to report my weekly results to the Web site. Say, it's Saturday and I only have four acts of kindness to my name for the week, so I'll go to the grocery store and smile at the cashier.

Actually, no, I could make a food bank donation (not that smiling isn't nice - or maybe creepy when done in a desperate attempt to save bucks).

As for reporting those results, you have a few options. I've chosen the honor system. If I were a little less sure of my honor, the Web site has the option of choosing a friend as a "referee" who could verify whether I achieved my goal. You can also sign up supporters to cheer you on in your goals.

It's early yet. I could also see my mind trying to convince me - when the frozen taquitos beckon and I can't face another warrior position - that it wouldn't be such a bad thing to fail.

But so far, I've been good. I've made two reports - it can be done with a quick click, or you can write in a journal about your success or struggles - and I'm proud to say that my credit card has remained untouched.

I've vowed, though, that with this tough economy, whatever money I "save" will go to charities I do believe in. I've written my first check for $50 to the Norfolk Foundation, which, in turn, gives to a slew of good causes.

Plus, it counted toward my goal of five acts of kindness per week. Score!

My abs win, and so do good people working for a better world.

That should make for a happy new year.

Pilot staffer Toni Guagenti contributed to this report.

Nancy Young, (757) 222-5559, nancy.young@pilotonline.com