A sure way to kill motivation is to water down the challenge. This seems as if it contradicts Expectancy and the idea of success spirals, where you make sure you can’t lose, but the key is to set your success spirals around the process (“I Expect that I can use Beeminder to make sure I lift weights twice a week”) while deriving your Value from the results (“I’m getting stronger, and one day I’ll deadlift 500 pounds!”).
