LifeTango.com Blog

If you look in the right-hand column of this page (toward the top of the page), you’ll see a list of “Categories.” One of the categories is “LifeTango Challenges.” Roughly once each week, LifeTango will suggest a challenge or goal for LifeTango members to adopt. Hopefully these will be inspiring, commendable, or just plain fun, and by having LifeTango members like you accept these challenges, we hope we can make the world a little better place for all of us.

To view past challenges, just click on LifeTango Challenges in the category list.

A year ago, a group of co-workers and I decided we wanted to lose a little weight, so we designed an 8-week challenge. We each put $20 into the pot, and at the end of the 8 weeks, the person who had lost the most weight (as a percentage of his or her starting weight) would get half the pot, second place would get 30%, and third place would get the remaining 20%.

The level of involvement was amazing. Most of the participants stayed engaged throughout the challenge, and by the end, the 10 of us who had participated had lost a combined 150 lbs.

Our challenge illustrates what goal studies have proven: REWARDS MOTIVATE. “Researchers have . . . found that extrinsic rewards such as bonuses can increase people’s commitment,” writes Christine Brain in Advanced Psychology: Applications, Issues & Perspectives (© 2002, p. 135).

Here are some ideas on ways to reward yourself for accomplishing a goal:

1. Find a challenge that already exists that offers an award for accomplishing your goal. (For example, if you want to get in great shape, check out www.bodyforlife.com.)
2. Create a challenge. Talk with friends and family to see if others want to accomplish a goal similar to yours, or search the LifeTango community to find individuals with similar goals, then create a challenge with a prize for the winner.
3. Identify a reward for accomplishing your goal, tell a friend or family member, and then give him or her the money for the prize with a commitment that you’ll only get the money back if you accomplish your goal.
4. Identify a reward and promise yourself you’ll only get the reward if you accomplish your goal.  Even if you don’t give the money for the reward to another person, tell others about your goal and the reward you’ve promised yourself. That way, if you don’t accomplish your goal, and you told others you’d only get a new video iPod if you accomplished your goal, you won’t exactly be able to go buy that new video iPod without getting razzed by your friends.

I haven’t rubbed shoulders with a lot of celebs. In fact, the only celebrity I’ve ever even met was James Caviezel (from The Passion of the Christ, High Crimes, The Count of Monte Cristo, Frequency [a personal favorite of mine], etc.). And admittedly I only knew him before he was a celebrity (we went to high school together).

But this isn’t about James or celeb sightings. Rather, because I haven’t rubbed shoulders with a lot of celebrities, I never really thought about the fact that when you become rich and famous, people come out of the woodwork to ask you for things.

Last night, I had the opportunity of meeting a guy on a business flight. In the course of our conversation, I learned that he has a cousin who plays in the NBA, and he mentioned that his cousin gets calls all the time from people he used to know asking for things. He said his cousin has returned home to find as many as 32 voicemail messages asking for money or gifts.

As I was driving home from the airport, I found myself thinking “Why is there so much focus on ‘getting,’ and so little focus on ‘giving.’?” How much different would our world be if we were all more focused on asking how we could help others instead of asking others if they could do something for us?

Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying there aren’t times when it’s appropriate to ask for help. But as my traveling companion noted, these weren’t 32 requests for food to feed kids because someone had lost their job, or financial assistance due to an unforseen medical emergency. These were requests for Rolexes and other luxuries.

So this week’s LifeTango Challenge is to set a goal to:

Each month, look for one way to give rather than receive

To “adopt” this goal, simply click on the following link. On the resulting screen, click on “Adopt This Goal” in the upper left-hand column.

Each_Month_Look_For_One_Way_To_Give_Rather_Than_Receive

It could mean volunteering for a community or religious organization. It could mean helping a neighbor. Whatever it is, look for one way to give something back to those around you–whether it be your family, your neighborhood, your community, your church, your country, or the world.

And if you have great experiences (and I believe many of you will), email me at brentj@lifetango.com and let me know.

Brent

It was a Friday evening last fall and my wife was nervous.  She’d set a goal to compete in her first triathlon and had trained diligently for the first few weeks, but then “life” had gotten in the way.  Too much to do, too little time, and as a result, training had taken a back seat.  So there she sat, the night before the triathlon, afraid she wasn’t ready, and wondering if she should drop out and wait to compete in another one the following spring.

Fortunately, Cara had done something that is critical to achieving your goals. At the time she hadn’t realized she was following a proven success technique, but she’d done it nonetheless.  And that one “thing” was perhaps more important than all of the training she’d done.

Early on, Cara had TOLD OTHERS about her goal.  In doing so, Cara had created an implied commitment to herself and her friends.

So, while the fear of the unknown (after all, Cara had never competed in a triathlon before, so she didn’t know what to expect), and the fear that she wasn’t ready were tugging at her to quit, Cara’s fear of telling her friends that she’d backed out was tugging at her to push forward.

The result? Cara competed in the triathlon, accomplishing three things she’d set out to do: (1) She didn’t quit before she started. (2) She didn’t die. And (3) she didn’t come in last.  In fact, she did pretty well for her first triathlon.  Since then, she’s run a 10k and is training for her next triathlon–with a goal this time of placing in the top 3 for her age group.  And most importantly, she’s still telling others what she plans to accomplish (plus now posting her goals on LifeTango.com).

Is there something in your life you really want to accomplish? Then set a goal (preferably using LifeTango) and TELL IT TO OTHERS.

Enjoy the journey!

Brent

We built LifeTango to help you get more fun, more fulfillment, and more “whatever you’re looking for” in your life. Here you can create your “life list” (the list of things you want to do in your life), share your list with friends and family, and find others in the LifeTango community who have similar interests or backgrounds.

But how did LifeTango get started? In the summer of 2004, my wife, Cara, and I were visiting friends in Minnesota when they told us about a “club” they had started with some friends. Like a book club, the group got together once a month, but instead of discussing books, they were creating and discussing the things they wanted to do in their lives. They would provide encouragement and support to one another, apply some friendly peer pressure, and when someone came up with a cool idea, other members would add it to their own lists.

Cara and I were inspired and started our own lists. Mine included things like going on vacation to Hawaii, writing a novel, getting in shape, and more. But a few months later, we’d misplaced our paper lists and weren’t making much progress.

Then it occurred to me–the internet is the perfect place to create a list you won’t lose, share your list with others (via email), and even find others across town or across the world who want to accomplish similar things.

There was only one problem–I’m not a web developer. I’m a marketing guy (and as any computer developer will tell you, marketing folks are barely one step ahead of the duck-billed platypus on the intellectual food chain). I took a shot at building the site, but . . . well . . . let’s just say you’ll never see MY version of LifeTango :).

That’s where Sean came in. A former roommate of mine in college, Sean’s been doing web development for the past decade. With his technical know-how, and my . . . well . . . uh . . . I brought the food (good food) to our brainstorming sessions . . . LifeTango was born. And after many late nights and long weekends, we’re proud to give LifeTango to you.

Hopefully, LifeTango will help you get more out of life by giving you a place to create your Life List, share it with friends and family (who can provide encouragement and support and even join you in accomplishing some of the things on your list), and find others in the LifeTango community who want to do similar things.

Let me know what you think by sending me email at brentj@lifetango.com, and most importantly, enjoy!

Brent