Be Bold and Courageous

Many of my clients choose rewards for motivation to accomplish success in securing each new client, meeting with current and prospective clients, completing work for a client or even a personal objective. Choose small, frequent rewards for each objective. It could be a small reward for making a certain number of phone calls, for instance. Or a reward could be to postpone lunch until you’ve completed your objective.

Think about Ivan Pavlov’s (1849-1936) description on how animals (and humans) can be trained to respond in a certain way to a particular stimulus. His work paved the way for a new and objective method of studying animal and human behavior. Use a rewards system to condition yourself to react and just accomplish the most important things. Don’t use your critical thinking skills to postpone behavior. Use rewards to motivate your behavior.

Think big about what you really want. Then reward yourself along the way to that goal and reward your proactive behavior. While it is necessary to keep your eyes on your accomplishments, it is not enough to just keep your eye on the carrot of making a certain amount of money or recruiting a specific number of clients. You need to reward yourself as you reach certain milestones. First, as an example, decide what your marketing tactics and strategies are to recruit new clients? Break them down into bite-sized pieces that can be accomplished each week. Track your accomplishments. Know how many people you need to talk to in order to recruit each client. If you do not accomplish what you set out to do, then you cannot reward yourself.

Next, choose your own very special reward. Your rewards could be a walk in the park, a game of tennis, an upgrade to your website, a golf lesson, a night out at the movies, a concert, a special purchase such as flowers or shoes, a favorite art work, lunch out with a friend, a trip, or a special consultation. You get the idea…. It could even be to delegate certain parts of your work – telephone calls, cleaning, or getting organized with your own organizer. Choose something just for you.

These rewards will help you take the steps to achieving your annual goals. You won’t need to wait for the deferred reward of income dollars each month. Rewards are the most important part of your self-esteem support system. By rewarding and reinforcing yourself for at least 21 days, you will be able to dramatically increase your success. The success and enjoyment that result from modifying your own behavior then become the greatest motivators of all.

So, use immediate rewards and increase your activity slowly and surely. You deserve the success you want!