Give us all yer money!
A true win for Consistency last year was my blogging pact with Jennette. I ended up with 37 new posts in 2014, versus 28 in 2013 (both numbers exclude pimping-my-wares posts).
It was very effective having an accountability buddy and using Stickk to manage our commitment. It reminded me that whatever you do consistently shapes the tone of your life. If I want things to be different it’s not about dramatic sweeping changes. It’s repeated tiny actions and slightly smarter decisions, gathering momentum over time.
Likewise with the not-so-healthy consistent actions, like all those episodes of Grey’s Anatomy. If we are what we repeatedly do as Aristotle reckoned, I was a bum-shaped dent on the couch!
There were weeks when the thought of paying Jennette for missing the blog deadline wasn’t sufficiently scary. I really like Jennette! Adding the occasional five bucks to her life never felt like a bad thing.
Turns out Jennette had been feeling the same in reverse, so she proposed upping the stakes for 2015. Stickk has an “anti charity” feature wherein if you fail to meet your commitment, your money goes to a nominated organisation to which you really do not wish to give money. I chose the UK Conservative Party. Now I have the above image of a grinning Treasurer George Osborne and Prime Minister David Cameron taped to my monitor to spur me into action. Win!