How Consequences Can Help You Make Gains

One of my clients recently started signed up for Classpass - you know, the subscription service that lets you sign up for classes and gym time at different gyms. He’s had gym memberships before, and even has a decent gym in his apartment complex but he rarely ever goes to the gym.

He always has an excuse, busy with work, busy with family. As his trainer, I felt like going to the gym was his last priority, something he’d only do if he felt like going. And you guessed it, he only felt like going to the gym maybe once a month.

When he told me he signed up for Classpass I thought, “here we go again…”

However, it’s been a few weeks and he’s been pretty consistent in going to different workout classes and open gyms using this app.

I asked him, “What’s different? How are you able to be more consistent now that you have Classpass?”

“Two words: cancellation fees. If you sign up for a class and then cancel within 12 hours of the class, they charge you money and you lose those credits that it cost to sign up for the class in the first place. Most of the time I sign up for a class the day before, and then day of I don’t feel like going anymore, but I end up forcing myself to go because I’d have to pay money and lose credits if I didn’t go.”

He went on to tell me that he used to work at amazon and they had this saying that good intentions never work, you need mechanisms to fix problems. The idea is that when something happens like you don’t hit a goal everyone gathers around in a meeting and says we’re going to try harder next time. This never works. Good intentions aren’t enough to drive meaningful change.

You need to have a mechanism. Something to ensure that the behavior changes. A reward for doing the right action, and a punishment for not doing it. Classical conditioning at its finest.

What’s interesting is that as parents, managers, and leaders we know this works and we set up systems to get more of the behaviors we want out of other people, yet we struggle to apply the same rules to ourselves to change our own behaviors.

If you find yourself struggling to get to the gym, or there’s some other behavior that you want to change, remember that good intentions aren’t enough. You can’t simply say I’m going to do better and expect long lasting change from that. You have to design a system that forces that behavior. There needs to be consequences for not doing it.

Stay fit,
Rafi Hussaini

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