Nearly all of us talk about things like losing weight, exercising more or eating better, but we don't often do much about them. Goals like that can be extremely difficult because there is such a big difference between long-term desires (to lose ___ lbs., for example) and short-term desires (pizza with the game on TV tonight, perhaps). That’s why we tend to say things like "I'll start that diet tomorrow" but then don't follow through.
Economists call these sets of circumstances time-inconsistent preferences because the "you" of today and the "you" of tomorrow are at odds in terms of what you want. To counteract this problem, economists suggest what are known as "commitment devices." Simply put, commitment devices are actions that people take to try to align their short-term and long-term incentives. In the case of diets, people might agree ahead of time to pay money to an outside party if they don’t meet their weight-loss goals or participate in some sort of weight-loss bet or contest. Two Yale professors have even started a business that implements commitment devices such as these.
Independent producers are often solo entrepreneurs and, as such, answer only to themselves. That can be a real problem due to these time-inconsistent preferences. The desire for the long-term health and growth of one's business can readily conflict with the short-term desire to play golf this afternoon. That's why joining together with other producers in a study group or working with another producer or someone here at AMS as accountability partners makes so much sense. For most of us, we need incentives (even the potential disgust of our peers) to keep us motivated and moving in the right direction at an appropriate speed.
Do you use any commitment devices? Which ones work for you and why?