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Back in the days of yore, my dad called his parenting technique "the carrot and the stick." This metaphor probably had something to do with his own childhood, spent on a ranch raising sheep. The "carrot" part occurred when he'd offer me jelly beans in order to get me to do something I didn't want to do—for example, wash his truck or keep hiking up a steep mountain trail. The "stick"  part occurred when he'd yell at me in the world's deepest and most booming voice, also to get me to do something I didn't want to do—for example, wash his truck or keep hiking up a steep mountain trail. He switched between the two methods at whim and to great success, at least in my book. As a child, I did what my dad said.

Now we're all our own parents, and there are so many things we don't want to do. Like wake up at 6 in the morning and pay the bills we ignored the night before (whoops, slept in) or get to the gym as we publicly vowed to do in 2012 while tipsy on New Year Eve. Luckily, A new service called Gym Pact, which appeared in the New York Times this week has come to our aid, using an app that mimics my dad's old fashioned method. Basically you sign up on your smart phone and register how many days you want to commit to working out. The gym's computers are linked to the app, so if you don't go, you get fined $5. If you do go, you get paid—that's right, paid!—an amount that's determined each week by pooling and dividing all the money collected from no-goers. Right now that's about $1.50 a week, or $6 a month—an amount that I will try to  spend on organic kale or carrots, but will probably spend on...jelly beans.

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