. . . don’t give up on the goal! Instead, try to spice things up a bit by inserting a rewards system into your Goal-Achievement Process. In other words, incentivize yourself to GET THINGS DONE! And, I know what you might be saying right about now. You might be saying, “How would that lead to goal-producing results? I’M rewarding MYSELF, not working to gain some recognition from an outside source. Seems like I’d be depleting my own resources instead of earning something extra by my goal-pursuing efforts. So, why would rewarding myself incentivize me to do anything at all?”
Well, yesssss. In the example above, you would be depleting your own “monetary” resources by rewarding yourself. Say, for instance, you decide to buy yourself a special meal out at a top-tier restaurant each time you hit a milestone. You are definitely spending your own money to eat that special meal at that top-tier restaurant. But, look at it this way. You’re gaining something else (mini-goal achievement) in the rewarding of yourself. The reward goes out but the micro achievement comes in. Isn’t it all balancing out for the WIN in the end, because the whole transaction is 100% benefitting YOU?
Of course, it is. (Unless your mindset tells you that you will refuse to enjoy your scrumptious meal as much as you would have if you didn’t have to pay for it at all.)
And, here’s where the goal mindset switch needs to happen.
You need to condition the mindset to buy into the understanding that the achievement of the goal IS the “ultimate” reward. And whatever you can do (within reason) to encourage (incentivize) yourself to keep going for it is worth a try.
Don’t look at it in a negative light — like you’re losing something in your pursuit of gaining something (your goal). Look at it like this:
. . . this rewards system I’m setting up for myself is a temporary means to an end . . . a strategy (among other strategies) I’m using to keep myself on the path toward my goal destination. I WIN in the end, if I achieve my goal, no matter what rewards I had to give myself to get the goal got. The end result is I’m a “Goal Achiever” no matter how you slice it.
And by the way, output will always require some input. So, here’s another mindset trigger you can set off for yourself. Think of rewarding yourself like this — why not look at yourself as an investment? I mean . . . you invest in others and their dreams. Just do the same thing for YOU. And see how much more motivated you’ll be to follow through on your ultimate goal.
Listen. The rewards don’t even have to involve you dishing out any “extra” money. You could simply reward yourself with something you already have. Here’s what I mean . . .
You have Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, Hulu, ESPN+, Disney+/Hulu/ESPN+, Apple TV+, one of the other streaming platforms. Right? And, they have a bijillion movies or shows that you want to watch at some point. Right? Well, instead of being a “hooked to your viewing device of choice” entertainment zombie, try deliberately rewarding yourself by refraining from making the viewing of movies/shows commonplace in your daily routine.
Tell yourself you’re going to reward yourself (blank) times a week with a good movie or series on one of your streaming platforms. Or, maybe there’s some live programming that you’re looking forward to catching when it comes on. Aim for your milestone (small or large). Hit it. And then, reward yourself by vegging out on your visual entertainment of choice.
Now, I know I went deeeeep into the example above, but there are SO MANY other inexpensive ways to reward yourself that aren’t going to cause you to pinch pennies to do them. Just think of things you enjoy doing and then put your creative spin on figuring out how to finagle them into a no-cost reward to keep you on your pursuit path.
And for those of you who aren’t buying into keeping your goal pursuit “fresh” by rewarding yourself, I’ll sweeten the pot for you a bit. Next post, we’ll go into wrangling involvement from others to keep you motivated in GETTING GOAL WORK DONE.
Until then . . .
degreesofmaternity.com 
I love the comic relief. Thanks for sending some my way. I always welcome it. Hee. Hee. And yes, we sometimes have to sweeten the pot for ourselves in order to keep motivated and on track towards goal completion. As human beings, we need a little outside encouragement from time to time.
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Wonderful article Jana about boredom and goals. In my view, being bored in the 21st century is actually not really boring, who can be bored whilst watching Netflix, Showmax or DSTV huh😂😂😂😂, so many movies to Bing watch and add popcorn to the mix, boredom becomes buried and a thing of the past, feel me😂
Anyways, on a serious note, people who are bored with the goal end up taking their eyes away from the prize. Hence, adding rewards and incentives as you said helps spice it up🔥🔥🙏
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Hey there Christy – thanks so much for stopping by my little nook of the blogosphere. Yes, if folks are like me, the shiny object syndrome can set in real quick. And, when the goal pursuit doesn’t seem to be moving as quickly as one would hope, then here comes the tendency to bail out of the goal pursuit altogether. But, I’m learning to hold on through different methods for keeping the pursuit from getting too tedious and monotonous. So, being creatively “fresh” has definitely saved me from giving up a time or two or move. Hey, hope you have a fantastic weekend and thank you for your comment.
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You’re right that keeping it “fresh” is important to stay motivated!
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