What Motivates You?

What motivates you?

One of my favorite authors, Gretchen Rubin, writes about using rewards to motivate you toward reaching your goals.  What I discovered, though, was that for me rewards really have little value. I never really understood why, until the other day. 

While listening to a podcast featuring Jon Acuff he spoke about knowing what motivated you. You were basically either motivated by reward or by fear, or what he referred to as consequence. 

The example he gave was about saving for retirement. He said for some using the carrot of saving for all the fun things you could do in retirement worked, while for others cautioning them about the possibility of running out of money was a more motivating reason to save.

Suddenly, it made sense why rewards just don’t seem to work for me. Obviously, I’m wired more to respond to consequences. I think my practical nature, and rule following way make me want to do things simply because they are the right thing to do. 

Now, this doesn’t always mean I am successful, but knowing what the consequences are does often time keep me on track. I don’t walk at the gym each morning to earn a massage. Rather, my hope is that by continuing to stay active I will be able to get around better in my eighties. 

I don’t reward myself with a treat for making my bed most mornings, but rather I like the feel of a made bed when I crawl into each night. Eating healthy foods seems counter productive to reward it with dessert. Once I rewarded myself with a trip to the bookstore after meeting a weight loss milestone. To be honest, although I did enjoy the new book, it really didn’t motivate me to stay on track the next week. 

So as Gretchen Rubin likes to remind us knowing our true nature can lead to a happier life. I’ll know in the future that rewards just don’t work for me, and I’ll do better to reframe things around the consequences they may bring.