Rewarding Good Behavior

by Kris Pitcher

You've had a great week! You've mastered your plan, followed your workout routine...you even got to bed on time. You deserve a reward! Rewards can be a great game plan, or game changing depending on how you see them.

Your reward plan should include both big rewards for reaching goals, and small rewards for making weekly progress. The type of reward is crucial to your success long term.

Throughout history, we have rewarded good behavior with - food. Sweets, goodies, going all out! Now, if we're going to make progress we need to make our rewards count, not make them counter.

Learning to reward yourself with non-food items might be a new idea. You do deserve a treat. Let's think about treats that won't take you back two steps when you've just taken one step forward.

The thing about rewards is they have to matter to you. I can make a list of things, but they've got to appeal to you. You'll need to make your own list - get creative. Here are a few things to get you started.

• go to the movies
• compliment yourself - make yourself a "self-affirmation" box with sayings in it
• put a $1 in a jar every day you meet your goals, when it reaches $50 spend it
• take a bath
• treat yourself to your hobby
• get a pedicure
• buy new underwear
• read a book
• spend time with a friend
• go to the spa

You get the idea. Big rewards might be a weekend away, or an actual vacation. Identify things you love and treat yourself to those things. The work you are doing is deserving...not of a backslide, but of a reward.

Learning to give yourself gifts through your reward plan will have you feeling great about all the hard work you're doing. We need positive reinforcement, it's human nature. Supporting ourselves is part of the process. Now you can begin rewarding good behavior!