Personal Reward.
'Success' means to achieve goals that you have set. The keys to success are discipline and time management, because they enable us to keep working toward our goals. Described like this, the road to success sounds like trudging through wet cement. However, there is a better way. Reward Yourself For Your Success. Try framing success like this. The key to success is knowing how to reward and praise yourself for achieving realistic short and long-term goals. Success isn’t the only reward for your good behavior, however. Behavioral psychologists have been studying motivation for decades and have found that through our consciously supplying positive reinforcement to ourselves in our lives we actually begin to form 'good habits', like discipline and the practice of effective time management. Food As Positive Reinforcement. The intelligent use of rewards can make doing the difficult or mundane tasks in our life much easier. Food rewards are useful for both daily and major achievements. For daily goal reinforcement, choose delicious stress-busting treats like dark chocolate covered almonds, bananas with chocolate syrup, dark chocolate covered blueberries, low fat ice cream or a low fat latte (who wouldn't want to strive toward a reward like this!). Celebrate your major goals with friends, family or a loved one by enjoying cocktails (or a salmon and cream cheese salad – it's your choice) at your favorite restaurant. Baking a cake or a batch of cookies is also a great way to share your victory with your family. Your Rewards Should Fit Your Goals. The way you reward yourself should fit the goal you have reached. For example, if fitness and losing weight are your goals, reinforcing a week at the gym with a slice of blueberry cheesecake could be seen as 'inappropriate'. Buying yourself a new workout CD would encourage you to exercise, and would also make your routine that much more fun and exciting. Purchasing new exercise clothes or athletic shoes after successfully reaching several months of your dietary and fitness goals may also serve as a good motivator. Time Off As A Reward. The important thing to remember, especially for high achievers and hard workers, is to give yourself permission to take time off. This could be your best form of reward. For many successful people, this seems difficult, if not impossible. Single mothers and fathers, and folks juggling between work and school, can easily become overwhelmed with their routine. Don’t forget to schedule time for yourself where you will do nothing but relax, or do something that you really like to do. You deserve it, and knowing that you can watch a movie, take a nap, read a book or take a hot shower can help you to make it through a hectic schedule. Reward As A 'Personal Contract'. The way to successfully motivate yourself using appropriate rewards is to create a 'binding contract' with yourself each time you set goals for yourself. Some individuals find that it works for them to physically 'write down' their goals and rewards and then 'check each one off' as they are accomplished. Others find that a simple mental note works along with visualizing the reward that will come at the end of the task. Sharing Rewards. Many of us enjoy working with others when it comes to goal setting and the reward process, because doing so increases the accountability of both the goals and the rewards. Sharing goals and rewards can also increase your chances for success because you will know that someone actually does care about whether you achieve this 'success'. This also creates a natural support group which can provide encouragement and feedback. Self-awareness. Self-awareness is crucial to achieving your goals. Listening to what you tell yourself (your instincts, opinions, and thoughts on the issue) will help you to discover where you feel you fall short. It will also allow you to 'pat yourself on the back' or 'blow your own horn' during times of achievement (even when no-one else does). Some of us tend to be too harsh on ourselves when we don’t meet our expectations. Be careful here, because this can eventually 'sabotage' your ability to achieve your goals. Being too critical of yourself (calling yourself stupid or incompetent) can lead to self-induced stress and ultimately depression, which will take its toll on your immune system. When you don’t accomplish a task as well as you had hoped; rather than attack yourself for the failure, use it constructively to learn from it. Examining 'what went wrong' and correcting it is a much better use of your time than berating yourself for the disappointment would be. Setting Realistic Goals. Be sure you are setting realistic goals for yourself. If there is an area where you need to improve, take small steps. For instance, if you are giving up sweets or cigarettes, begin by cutting back on your intake. Do this for a week or so. When you meet this goal, cut back more… and so on, until you have eliminated intake altogether. At each step, reward yourself for cutting back. When you achieve your goals, what do you tell yourself? Do you praise yourself for a job well done or do you ignore it and just keep going? It’s important that you give yourself positive feedback for getting through the tough days. Your daily routine may seem ordinary; however, by noticing your small achievements, in the long run you will accomplish something extraordinary. Reminders Of Success. Some of us find it helpful to create certificates, badges, or even take photo as mementos of our accomplishments. Having something concrete; something to hold and look at, can help to motivate you to achieve even higher goals. These mementos also serve as reminders that you are a successful person; that you already have achieved such and such, and are therefore capable of achieving even more. As mentioned previously, time management can be seen as essential when it comes to achieving goals. Keeping a time-log helps you to make sure that your time is spent wisely. The judicious use of rewards can act as a motivator for daily tasks, as well as for long-term objectives that actually deserve to be celebrated. By knowing your motivations and by incorporating them into a system that is based on your goals and rewards, you can achieve success.
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