I’m going to derail on a goal today, so I have been thinking about this today as well. My wife knows about beeminder and accepts it, but finds it very strange.
Her: “Well you don’t you just lie them, so you don’t have to pay. They won’t know”
Me: “But then I’m just lying to myself. I set the goal up. If I cheat, then it loses its power, and it doesn’t work”
The goal I’m going to derail on today is my goal to complete my daily to-do list. It is hugely valuable to me. I am able to get far more done every day thanks to the goal. It’s hard to directly link it to income or happiness, but it is probably worth thousands of pounds a year to me. The derail string is only $30, but (being a very cheap person) this feels extremely unplesant.
Humans tend to be loss adverse. If I could pay $30 a month to guarantee I get all my todo items done every day, I would pay with a smile, but being stung after the failure feels different.
I’m trying to think of it the other way around therefore. When I derail today, I am going to try and look to the future, and see this as a way to keep my motivation strong, ensure the goal continues to be effective, and help me get more done every day than I would otherwise. I could cheat, and record a datapoint despite not having finished the tasks, but that would be stupid in the long run, so I won’t!