At some point or another, probably when you were a lot younger, you were lectured about the importance of keeping promises. Unfortunately, promises are like babies – easy to make but hard to deliver. “I promise to quit smoking”. “I promise to start exercising before work”. “I promise to meditate every day”. Sound familiar?
Likewise, even if you don’t make “promises”, you can’t avoid making commitments all the time. The to-do lists pile up with obligations – to return emails, call grandma, read more, finish that pet project – and the list goes on. And on.
Inevitably we slip up. It is incredibly hard to follow through on every commitment we make, particularly those that we secretly make to ourselves. Sending your nephew a birthday card is one thing but mustering the motivation to avoid processed food or lose that extra weight is an entirely different ballgame.
If your New Year’s Resolution is now a distant memory you’re not alone. In fact, while 45% of people make New Year’s resolutions only 8% of people stick to them.
Even when we make promises to ourselves to do the things that we know will make our lives better we can get sidetracked by distractions, lack motivation or simply slip back into routine. Surely there must be a way to get more motivated to follow through on own self-improvement commitments? To actually doing what we ‘could’ or ‘should’ do.
Often making private, discreet promises to ourselves is not enough and that to really increase the likelihood that we will ‘make good’ on our intentions we needed to put something on the line.
Intuitively this makes sense and is backed by social and behavioural research, which shows that the chance of achieving a goal increases 33% if it is shared with others and by 72% if money is put on the line. So why not combine these two approaches to help other people achieve their personal goals? Promise or Pay is doing just that.
Promise or Pay motivates you to uphold your commitments and change the world for the common good by putting your money on the line for charity. And the process is super simple. You publicly promise to do something or pay a nominated contribution to a charity if you do not follow through. Others encourage and keep you accountable but promising to make a donation if you succeed.
Promise or Pay harnesses social media to make your goal public and thereby strengthen the intention of keeping it. It also integrates charitable giving to ensure a win-win outcome is always achieved and you are left feeling good. If you keep your promise, your Supporters donate. If you break your promise, you donate.
By combining social motivation with charitable giving, Promise or Pay motivates you to do the things you most want to do with your life, while creating a more engaging and empowering way to donate to charities that are making a real difference in the world.
Important and difficult changes are often achieved only after a number of mistakes and imperfections. In a world that is fixated on perfection we need to remember that promises, like Fine China, break if they are not handled with the right attention and care. But at the same time, we need to recognise that one promise can make a huge difference. What will your promise be?
By combining social motivation with charitable giving, Promise or Pay motivates you to do the things you most want to do with your life, while creating a more engaging and empowering way to donate to charities that are making a real difference in the world.
Jay is driven by the desire to help others, he’s passionate about positive social change and believes in the power of social entrepreneurship to tackle some of the world’s biggest problems.
He founded Promise or Pay while living and working full-time in Cambodia as an Australian Youth Ambassador for Development.
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A comment from Dr Joe – We all know what we need to do to improve our health. It is not that hard. But yet often we struggle to stay in course. Whilst it could be argued that feeling better should be motivation enough, human nature is such that external motivation often works better.
This is where a site like Promise or Pay comes in. It enables us to commit to our goals in a public way and also to put our money where our mouth is. The combination of helping people achieve their goals with supporting worthwhile causes is the proverbial win-win situation.
I am very pleased to be partnering with the good people at Promise or Pay and encourage you to look at how your health goals can help you feel better and also help others in need.
Jay is driven by the desire to help others, he’s passionate about positive social change and believes in the power of social entrepreneurship to tackle some of the world’s biggest problems.
He founded Promise or Pay while living and working full-time in Cambodia as an Australian Youth Ambassador for Development.
Jay has been selected as one of Australia’s top 50 young social entrepreneurs by the Foundation for Young Australians and received a 2015 Myer Innovation Fellowship.
