# Do you consider beeminder discipline? **URL:** \ **Category:** uncategorized\ **Created:** [July 21, 2014, 1:11am UTC](https://forum.beeminder.com/t/do-you-consider-beeminder-discipline/1521 "2014-07-21T01:11:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![kkyang](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.beeminder.com/kkyang/32/108_2.png) [@kkyang](https://forum.beeminder.com/u/kkyang)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2014, 1:11am UTC](https://forum.beeminder.com/t/do-you-consider-beeminder-discipline/1521/1 "2014-07-21T01:11:42Z")
Let’s say we have Bob and Jim. Bob and Jim. Both decided that they wanted to better themselves by going to the gym 3 days a week. Both have failed in the past to be consistent with this goal. They both try again this time however Jim has the help of beeminder. Bob loses nothing if he doesn’t make it to the gym. Jim loses $100 if he doesn’t. They both consistently go for a year and have great results! _Is Bob more disciplined than Jim?_ I want to say that I absolutely love beeminder. It’s helped me be consistent with not just one habit but a handful of habits all at once. Something I would have never imagined happening prior to learning about beeminder. I would have just followed the rules of learn one habit at a time etc. I’ve been consistent on 6-7 now all at once because of beeminder. I ask the question because I wonder about the long term affects of beeminder. Is there any discipline being built when using beeminder? I find that when I tried habits before I had a lot of will power drain when forcing my self to do the habits. However with beeminder I by pass all the will power drain/struggle and simply do it because I’m going to lose money if I don’t. there’s no questioning whether I feel like it or not. Just some thoughts I had in the shower today after reaching my running goal for the day 😛 – You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups “Akratics Anonymous” group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [akratics+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com](mailto:akratics+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com). For more options, visit [https://groups.google.com/d/optout](https://groups.google.com/d/optout). ---
**Author:** ![Essentiae](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dec6dc/32.png) [@Essentiae](https://forum.beeminder.com/u/Essentiae)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2014, 2:18am UTC](https://forum.beeminder.com/t/do-you-consider-beeminder-discipline/1521/2 "2014-07-21T02:18:12Z")
I think what you’re doing is leveraging the willpower you have in one area for the purpose of shoring up weaker willpower in another area. For example, I have anti-lying willpower, but very little “do all of the things” willpower. Beeminder allows me to leverage one in service of the other. (Since I know I have the willpower to report the derail, I know I have to do X or pay the fee.) As far as building discipline goes, apparently even just making your bed every day helps increase willpower. (Sorry, you’ll have to google the citation; it’s been a while since I read it and I don’t have it at hand). So it seems likely, that Beeminder increases willpower, but it might depend on whether the action was coerced or not (and one could say that the sting is coercive… I mean, that’s kind of the point). Maybe if you make a point of trying to keep all graphs in the green or even the blue and to avoid eep days you’re building a kind of willpower. Also, I suspect that as the habits become ingrained, they require less willpower, freeing it up for other things, but that’s just a wild guess. (Procrastinating by responding to AkAn… Yup, that sounds about right.) Essy On 20 July 2014 21:11, Kenny Yang [yangkennyk@gmail.com](mailto:yangkennyk@gmail.com) wrote: > Let’s say we have Bob and Jim. > > Bob and Jim. Both decided that they wanted to better themselves by going > to the gym 3 days a week. > > Both have failed in the past to be consistent with this goal. They both > try again this time however Jim has the help of beeminder. > > Bob loses nothing if he doesn’t make it to the gym. Jim loses $100 if he > doesn’t. > > They both consistently go for a year and have great results! > > _Is Bob more disciplined than Jim?_ > > I want to say that I absolutely love beeminder. It’s helped me be > consistent with not just one habit but a handful of habits all at once. > Something I would have never imagined happening prior to learning about > beeminder. I would have just followed the rules of learn one habit at a > time etc. I’ve been consistent on 6-7 now all at once because of beeminder. > > I ask the question because I wonder about the long term affects of > beeminder. Is there any discipline being built when using beeminder? I find > that when I tried habits before I had a lot of will power drain when > forcing my self to do the habits. However with beeminder I by pass all the > will power drain/struggle and simply do it because I’m going to lose money > if I don’t. there’s no questioning whether I feel like it or not. > > Just some thoughts I had in the shower today after reaching my running > goal for the day 😛 > > – > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > “Akratics Anonymous” group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [akratics+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com](mailto:akratics+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com). > For more options, visit [https://groups.google.com/d/optout](https://groups.google.com/d/optout). – You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups “Akratics Anonymous” group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [akratics+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com](mailto:akratics+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com). For more options, visit [https://groups.google.com/d/optout](https://groups.google.com/d/optout).