I’ve always struggled with regular exercise. Once I’m doing it, it feels great. But if I’m not already donning gym shorts and tennis shoes, I’m more likely to reach for a drink or hang out than hit the running trails.

So…a few weeks ago I wrote about Stikk.com, which helps you to keep your commitments by pledging money to a person or a cause. Read the entire post here.

I said I’d exercise four days a week. I knew it was going to be tough. At first, I ran in the rain, got up at 5 am twice a week and did all I could to ensure that none of the readers who signed up to accept my failure money got a cent. But then I went to LA for a wedding and spent more time sitting by the pool than swimming in the pool. Last week, I made it to three times, but not the fourth.

So…I lost $40 because I pledged $240 for 12 weeks and have $20 on the line each week. And I randomly picked a winner from the people who emailed me to receive my money. Congrats Soren24! I’ll pick another winner if I fail again. To get in on the action, send an email to kara@startribune.com with the subject line: Stikk.

I only ran once so far this week which means I have to work out today through Sunday or I owe more dough.

I really thought I was so cheap that this incentive thing would work. But I’m learning that when time and money are competing as precious commodities, time can win out.

This entry was posted on Friday, May 9th, 2008 at 4:31 pm and is filed under Kara\'s finances. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.