How many times has your conscience told you to do something but you never followed through?  I can think of several lingering New Year’s resolutions, failed summer workout plans, and unread books throughout my life, all thwarted by my inherent laziness and procrastination.  So what can one do to trick your inner self into improving your health and well being when sheer will isn’t enough?

The creators of Stickk, a website that allows you to form Commitment Contracts, helps provide the extra incentive necessary to reach your goals.  Want to lose 10 pounds this month?  Well Stickk will help you create a contract on yourself with stipulations that incline you to follow through.  One example is to allow Stickk to draft a chosen amount of money from your checking account and donate it to a charity in which you disagree with if you fail to reach your goal.  The site also involves your friends and family as “referees” to help keep you in check.

Stickk was created by Yale economics professors Dean Karlan, Barry Nalebuff, and Ian Ayres, as well as Yale student Jordan Goldberg, as a scholarly research project but it has blossomed into a reputable business venture with customers reporting an 85% success rate.

As an aimless, lazy and poor twenty-something, a contract with Stickk could finally take advantage of my fiscal prudence to help me get in shape.  All I need is an incentive to actually make the contract…

This article was written in June & is part of the Archives , Internet's Best , Zack sections.