Using Rewards To Keep Your Motivation High

If you have been following this blog for a while, then you may know that I use a reward system to motivate me to continue to write. The reward I use is the Wine of the Month. When I successfully complete one month's worth of blog posts, then I celebrate with a special bottle of wine that I share with my wife and daughter.

My goal is to post one blog post per week. One day while writing I was struggling to complete the post. I had put off writing until late in the week. With the busy week still to go, I had to little time to waste to complete the blog post. Then I thought about which wine was I going to enjoy to celebrate this month. Well, that was a problem. I had a vague notion of the wine. I had picked the producer, but I had several bottles from that producer. I hadn't chosen the specific bottle of wine.

Upon this realization, I quickly got up, and picked out the specific bottle. I then placed it on my desk. That way when I felt like quitting I would glance at the bottle, imagine how much I would enjoy it, and that was just the motivation I needed. Of course, I completed my writing on time.

Using a reward system is great and can be very motivating. But not if our reward is so vague that we don't have any emotions when thinking about it. It will not have the affect on our motivation that we were hoping. My problem was I didn't know exactly which wine I was going to enjoy. What wine was going to reward my efforts. Once I got very clear on the exact bottle of wine it became much easier.

I didn't used to believe that rewards were necessary to motivate me. I used to think that people that used rewards were weak. That they just lacked self-discipline, motivation, drive, etc. I was so wrong. We all needs way to assist us and gives us a little push whether it is a reward or a deadline where bad things happen if missed. Having used rewards myself and spoken to many other high achieving and high performing individuals, I have since changed my thinking about that and would suggest that you give it a try.

So here an example of some vague and specific reward system that I hope help illustrate the method. Vague reward; Rewarding yourself with something you will do in the future but you don't know when you will do it, or exactly what it looks like. E.g. "I will go out to dinner when I meet my goals." Where are you going to dinner? What specific restaurant? Why do you like that restaurant? What will you order? When you get very specific about the reward it is more helpful. The more details you add, the more real it gets, and the more it can fuel you to continue.

Another level you can pull is the accountability partner or social sharing. For example, going to the restaurant with specific friends. Then call those friends and tell them your goal and the deadline. Once you do this, you have even more motivating reasons to make it happen. Imagine calling your friends and telling them the restaurant date is off because you didn't meet your goal. How would that feel? Now imagine calling your friends and tell them to that you met your goals so the restaurant date is a go. You also tell them not to wear any tight fitting clothes, because it has the best food in town.

What rewards can you set up for yourself? What would be something that would keep you going when it gets tough? What specifics can you add to that reward? Are you treating yourself to a purchase or a special day where you get to do things you find really enjoyable? Is it a celebration with friends and family, or are buying yourself a new espresso machine? The reward doesn't have to be big, but it does need to be clear. It should also bring you joy and motivate you to keep going at the thought of collecting on your reward.