The Idea

One evening last October in Missoula, Montana, after several beers and no small amount of Jameson, two brothers lamented their laziness, deplored their disorganization, and grieved over their guts. Daniel, a first year graduate student at the University of Montana, worried about his continued procrastination, which he had hoped to outgrow before grad school. Michael was particularly concerned about the steady decline in his physical fitness level, despite near-weekly attempts to reinvent himself over the previous half-decade.

Their lives would improve tremendously if only they could maintain a modicum of self-discipline, they conjectured. “Why, if I was capable of obeying self-imposed deadlines, I would probably have six-pack abs by now,” declared Michael, lighting another cigarette. “Me too!” Daniel exclaimed while cracking a beer, “And if I could stick to a schedule I would probably not have to pull an all-nighter to finish that paper I have due tomorrow!” Wasn’t there some way to give self-imposed deadlines some real teeth?

Shortly before sunrise, it was decided. Michael, who was in between schools and living and working in Washington DC as a web designer, would move to Missoula. The brothers would employ a number of negative-incentives to force themselves to comply with The Plan. The Plan would be hard core, involving strictly regimented work, study, exercise, and diet, and maybe even meditation and dancing lessons (that’s right, dancing lessons).

The purpose of this blog is to help keep the Hatley Brothers honest and accountable. By documenting every step of our attempt at self-transformation and making it public, we hope to force ourselves to follow through with our commitments. In addition to the selfish objective of keeping us in line, we hope that this blog will prove mildly entertaining for friends and family, and informative to workout or diet enthusiasts.