Karma provides the bridge between cause and effect separated by time. — Paraphrased from the Encyclopedia Britannica.

We’d all like to believe that doing good deeds in the present (cause) will lead to good consequences in the future (effect). The problem is that Karma does not offer any guarantee that good deeds will be rewarded any time soon. In fact, the reward may only come in a future life!

But what if we could give Karma a little nudge? What if we could take a good deed, like regular charitable donations, and mold it into a guaranteed positive effect, like lifelong healthy eating habits?

Today’s article shares an attractively simple and extremely effective method to do just that.

Want to Break a Bad Habit? Make It Expensive

Last week’s article got all worked up about capitalism’s greatest failure: all those ultra-addictive nutrient-free calorie-bombs that impose such a terrible burden on individuals and society alike.

Fixing this problem is laughably simple in theory: tax different foods according to the well-understood long-term effects they have on our health, productivity, and environment.

Sadly, translating this simple theory into practice is a whole lot harder.

But we don’t need to keep struggling through life surrounded by all these terribly twisted incentives. We can fix capitalism in our own little worlds at minimal cost and enjoy all the great benefits that follow.

Your Personal Charity Contract

Yes, if the politicians won’t step up, simply do it yourself. Draw up a formal contract in which you list the amount you’ll give to charity every time you engage in a self-sabotaging habit.

Keep it very simple, and make sure your definition of each self-destructive action is crystal clear. If not, you’ll very quickly figure out ways to game your own system. Here is my list as an example:

• Buying any empty calories.
• Eating while watching TV (my biggest binge-eating trigger).
• More than 0.5 kg of daily weight gain (violation of Hara Hachi Bu).
• A visible red bar on RescueTime (more than 30 minutes of distracting activities on my PC).
• Not getting up after my fitness band buzzes to indicate 1 hour of inactivity.
• Streaming/downloading any video content with questionable legality.

Whenever I engage in any of these clearly defined modes of self-sabotage, I must donate $30 (about one hour’s worth of after-tax income) to charity. Most months, I trip up a few times, and that’s just fine. Thus far, it’s gotten me almost half-way to offsetting my entire life’s carbon footprint.

But there are also months when this system gives me Jesus-like levels of self-control. These months, I pay nothing to charity, and that’s just fine too. Perfectly healthy and productive living contributes enormous value to society in and of itself.

Don’t Forget the Carrots!

An incentive system that’s all stick and no carrot is no fun. That’s why your contract should also include some small incentives for building nurturing habits. Here are mine:

• Eat from each of these five food categories daily: raw veggies, cooked veggies, fruits & berries, nuts & seeds, and non-meat proteins.
• Drink a glass of water before every snack.
• Keep my eating window shorter than 12 hours.
• Fully complete my morning and evening routines.
• A conversation or presentation where I did everything right.
• Successfully reframe any counterproductive self-talk.
• Complete a successful meditation session (fully present).

Every time I do one of these things, I earn back 10 cents. Over the course of a month, consistently nourishing behavior can earn enough to cancel out one of the penalties from the previous section.

I settle the balance at the end of every month. That means that a perfect month with no self-destruction and plenty of self-nourishment earns me one free treat from my penalty list. I can tell you: chocolate has never tasted as good as when it was earned over a perfect month 🙂

Bean Counting

Keeping track of these carrots and sticks is a breeze if you already commit 2 minutes to your Graph of Life every morning. If the Graph of Life is not for you, a simple counter app on your phone will also do the trick.

At the end of every month, donate the balance to your selected charity. My favorites include the education of girls and women and carbon offsets in the form of community-centered projects — both of which help those who were not as lucky as us to win at the lottery of birth.

Make sure you set your penalties and rewards so that your average month forces you to pay an amount you’re a little uncomfortable with. This will give you the incentive needed to improve your habits.

I strongly recommend that you give this a try! Good Karma tends to follow those who practice healthy and productive habits day after day.