As we become evermore consumerist alongside our undesirable work patterns, we now find any such means of gratification to justify our effort. ‘I’m working really hard I should not be suffering on this bus just to get to work?‘*, ‘I’ve ate healthy all day surely I’m due a break?* and finally ‘I’ve worked every day for ‘x’ straight weeks now and I’ve not had time to enjoy myself‘*

*solution

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* buy a nice car

*go for a nice meal

*book a holiday

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These are all instant fixes that we can apply to ourselves for hard work, most of which will provide us with enough satisfaction to then carry on striving for even better or at least be able to justify our hard work when it gets tough.

When it comes to our bodies or one could say any other entity to which we give our time besides work, are we rewarded for the effort? and more importantly do we reward ourselves more than we need to? If we replaced ‘reward’ with ‘motivate’ in this context it would imply that we are in turn requiring another ‘motive’ to continue as opposed to being rewarded with ‘praise’ Are we so weak in our pursuits of better living that we need someone or something at every hurdle screaming ‘good job’ whilst everyone else running the race is already at the finish watching you revel in that first set of hurdles. I have this image of training a dog, conditioning them to associate their effort with treats and then simultaneously trying to achieve the exact same goal with nothing. Are we just jumping through the hoops of our own egos or do we actually want to see ourselves succeed?

My point is one of accepting that there will be hard times that can only be pacified by an instilling drive to continue and not to regress, but more importantly acknowledging whether you are actually reaping the rewards from your efforts. If the answer is no, do not reward yourself, find the reason why you haven’t seen any progress and stick at the things that bring it. Just killing yourself without having a plan of what you want to achieve or suddenly deciding that you deserve a reward already is just blind and redundant energy wasted. By giving in and rewarding yourself for just trying you are essentially celebrating your loss, a bi-product of having ‘reward’ at every vulnerable turn. Celebrating your progress tastes so much sweeter than the taste of over-indulgence.

The ratio of effort:reward is the same as energy:results, use your energy tactfully and the results which you deserve, not that which you think you are entitled, and this will be graced to you tenfold. If there was a medal for jumping the first hurdle our necks would be too heavy to surmount the last.