Sometimes, we don’t reward ourselves enough. What is the purpose of a reward? Obviously, it is like the carrot, compared to the stick - a motivator, to get us to do something. In the big picture though, rewards can improve our happiness, improve productivity, and accelerate progress towards your own big goals.

Now, some of that may sound a bit strange. The trouble is, although self-rewarding is built into us - gratification is built into our psyche in concepts such as Maslow’s hierarchy of needs - our brains may make an assumption of what is good, and we act as if that assumption is true. Ergo, there are activities that may seem like ‘rewards’ but in actual fact are anything but.

An extreme example - a cigarette. A smoker would understand that this might be a reward for completing a task ‘oh, I’ll do this, and then I’ll have a smoke’. A non-smoker would agree with me that this reward is anything but. But then, we can also look at other false rewards - junk food, spending money on rubbish, porn surfing. No-one is perfect, but perceiving these type of ‘activities’ as rewards is not going to be good in the long run. If you want to do it, then do it. It is more about the bigger picture.

A really good system of rewarding I read was the 10,25,50,75,100 system. This categorises the type of reward that you have at your disposal. Get a pen, and write them down. You may find it difficult at first - but it will come.

10 - These rewards are the smallest. Often, they are free or at very little cost. They are small things that make you feel good. Often, and I am guilty of this, we are obsessed with material needs that we think are wants.  The 10 level doesn’t focus on this. What do I find a 10:
- paying a compliment to someone.
- having something to eat which is healthy but also tastes good.
- strumming on the guitar for a bit
- listening to some good tunes
- looking at funny videos
- contemplation and visualisation
- thinking about dreams
- having some coffee
- steam room
- chatting to a friend
- looking on internet about possible holidays.
Imagine starting a day with a few of these tasks instead of the usual regiment of get up, and go! 10s can be serviced at any time.

25 is the next step up and are rewards that are something that doesn’t happen every day, maybe a couple of times a week or month. Still quite easy to do, but are probably more enjoyable because they do not happen every day.
- Going out to see friends for drinks.
- Going for a workout at the gym.
- Buying a piece of clothing
- Going out for food.
- Taking an afternoon off work and doing something totally different.
- Going to a football match.
- Going for a long drive with no destination in mind.
- Playing football, or taking on a new class.

These are the type of things that I might subconsciously attach a condition onto, like ‘complete this’. The point is, doing things the other way around does not decrease the chances of success. The dynamic changes from everyday pressure (to complete the set list of tasks) to healthly motivation to breeze through them. The brain isn’t a fool, in my own opinion, you won’t be able to spend all day doing healthy 10’s and 25’s (emphasis on healthy) before some sort of self-regulation kicks in.

50 - as you can guess, this is an even more stretched out timescale. Maybe every couple of months this could happen or a few times each year. It probably gets harder now to think of definate ones as the monetary cost kicks in. For me, some are (but no means definitive)
- Fly to another country using cheap flights.
- Visit some friends that are several hundred miles away.
- Go for a weekend away somewhere else.
- Buy an expensive gadget.

75 - is similar but stretched out onto the yearly scale. This might happen only once every few years, if that. For me:
- Going on a big holiday to see something I wanted ie. Grand Canyon
- Getting a new car.
- Taking a month off work.
- Changing career, or learning a new skill.

100: These are the big ones. They may not ever happen, but should you attain them, you’ll remember it for the rest of your life. If you dream about it, it will make you happy. Some might be:
- Living/working abroad
- Having children
- Living close to the beach
- Doing a round-the world trip
- Do voluntary work abroad
- Qualify as a pilot
- Become famous
- Climb Mount Everest
- learn to speak another language
- Retire early

The thing is, it is not really the result that counts, but the process. Don’t obsess on big goals. Learn your friends/partners 10,25,50s etc so you know what motivates them and things will be much better. Often, we spent much time doing hard stuff, and not enough time doing the easy stuff.