How to Kick Bad Habits by Making Them “More Expensive”
Make a pact with friends to introduce penalties every time you practice the habit you want to remove.
Losing something makes you twice as miserable as gaining the same thing makes you happy.
But that’s not entirely a bad thing, because you can use the awesome power of “loss aversion” to your advantage to kick bad habits.
Make your bad habits "more expensive" by putting a penalty that you need to pay every time you do it.
The penalties work because of the power of loss aversion. You won’t want to lose money so much that you practice what’s on the penalty list.
To use "loss aversion" to help you kick bad habits, you’ll need two things:
A friend who is willing to make a list of their own bad habits that they want to change
An awareness of the bad habits you already have that you want to change (You can try to go at it yourself, but doing it with a friend is much easier – trust me on this one)
Then, come up with a list of penalties.
Each time you do something on the penalty list, pitch in a predetermined amount into a pool that goes toward a charity or give the money to your friend.
Or, for a bit of extra motivation donate the money to a cause you hate.