If you want to be happy, set a goal that commands your thoughts, liberates your energy and inspires your hopes.
—Andrew Carnegie
I have never been good at setting goals. I’m good at doing things repeatedly because my brain will remind me of the fact that I didn’t learn to ride a bike until I was 12 if I don’t.
That’s not setting a goal though. You need to have an achievable end result.
Results like, I can now fit my whole fist in my mouth or I can fit my whole fist in my snake’s mouth. Or things not involving your fist in things…
A dream is to not eat your feelings away and get big enough to block your 6’4″ brother in family photos. A goal is to lose 50 pounds by your wedding.
Over 71% of Americans are overweight or obese.
Cdc.gov
People need help setting and achieving goals.
Lets reward them to do so.
The Pitch
Create a platform for people to create S.M.A.R.T goals and then be rewarded with a tangible prize when they do so.
GoFundMe for inspiring people to reach their dreams.
The Science
I didn’t learn much in psychology class, besides getting paid $10 to do “research”. But LifeParade is a classic reward system.
I am very budget-minded and try my best to not just randomly buy a brand new phone because it just came out. However, you can’t just keep denying yourself things until you finally burst and buy everything during Prime Day.
So why not earn the things you want by doing things you want to make you a better person?
There’s research on both sides for reward systems. They can lead to addiction, satiation and manipulation. But also if they are correctly correlated to an obtainable goal they can be valuable. Also, many times after the goal is complete people will recognize that the reward was just the carrot and not truly valuable. People could choose to donate their reward instead of taking it themselves.
Hypotheticals
Let’s stay with my losing 50 pounds by my wedding. I post on LifeParade video evidence of my current weight and my goal end date. I then decide what would inspire me to lose the weight… besides being a healthier person who will live a longer and more fulfilling life…
Maybe a reward would be a pair of round-trip tickets to Hawaii for our honeymoon. We work with partners like airlines to help reduce a normal $2000 flight to $1500. The other $1500 will be promised by members as I continue on my journey.
You could also compete against others. You find a group of people looking to lose a certain percentage of weight in a certain time period. This already exists with websites like DietBet, but our platform would allow for non-diet challenges as well.
Will it Work?
