How to predict and plan for success; and how to effectively reward and reinforce yourself
Just as it’s important and useful to predict and plan for difficulties; so too is it helpful to imagine and expect success and positive progress.
You’ve set SMART goals; and thinking about achieving those goals will help motivate you.
More so, expecting that you’ll achieve your goals, having the confidence to know you can do what you need to do, will provide useful energy and positivity.
Even more so, knowing what do to when you do achieve your goals is also vitally important. And when you achieve your goals, or the steps towards your goals, it’s worth taking some time to savour the success, to enjoy the feeling, to reflect upon the achievement.
This feeds into the aforementioned point in which positive habit creation involved three steps – setting up cues or reminders, enacting the behaviour itself, and then reinforcing or rewarding oneself.
Self-reinforcement is strongly and indubitably associated with enhanced motivation and greater goal achievement. Recognising (even small) wins is what successful people do well.
Accordingly, your task right now is to make a list of all the rewards you can provide to yourself when you achieve what you’ve set out to achieve. As you do so, keep the following in mind:
- make sure you have a range of rewards, because variety is important (your only reward should NOT be chocolate!)
- make sure, also, that your rewards don’t just vary in type, but also in ‘size’. That is, small achievements should be met with smaller rewards and larger achievements with more significant ones
- and finally, try to include some intangible reinforcers (e.g. things you can say to yourself) along with the more tangible ones (e.g. buying yourself something new or allowing yourself time to relax in a nice, hot bath)
Keep this list somewhere you can access it easily and as with everything in this Super Life program, review and revise regularly.
Remember to download your Planning For Success activity sheet here.