Did you finish cleaning your room? Did you exercise for one solid hour? Did you call your friend and make amends? Did you go one whole day without a cigarette? Did you refrain from ranting out and instead recalled the old adage, no one can know what a fool you are, until you open your mouth? Then reward yourself.

    How you may ask, does one go about rewarding oneself. It is amazing how many people are not aware of how to do good things for oneself. I found this list of rewards as a sure fire way of knowing that if I didn't even care to do one of these for myself, the most important person, obviously, in my whole life, then I must be too depressed to do any of those behaviors expounded upon in the first paragraph. Then, I would consider paying someone to hear me talk.

    Rewards are an inherent part in our motivational system. Pavlov discovered them and used them quite effectively. No one has since up mastered Pavlov in reducing our conditioned motivational system to its most elemental and brain formative manner. The dog barks, you take him out. He urinates, you give him a treat.

    You refrained from confronting someone who was waiting for you at City Hall. You, instead, held your shoulders up and continued on your path deliberately ignoring her loud insults. You completed your task and returned home minus the confrontation. Tomorrow you should go to the mall and get a manicure.

    In order to be effective, this type of conditioning must be continual. I am not a dog, you might say. Well, neither were monkeys, astronauts. We train on animals, and we use what works on humans, who, by the way, lest we forget, my God why do we have to say it , over and over again, are also animals.

    Twelve rewards that are effective and that people have used:

    Go out to a store deliberately to buy yourself a new book, a magazine, a tape, a hat.

    Sleep in late. If you can't sleep, lie in bed until you absolutely have to get up. 

    Only eat food that you like as a reward for one day.

    Get a new hairstyle.

    Get a jogging outfit, new running shoes, an exercise module.

    Get tickets to a sporting game, or to a concert.

    Go to a movie or join netflix.com

    Treat yourself to lunch.

    Hire someone else to do your household chores for one week.

    Plan time for what you want to do not what everybody around you is expecting you to do.

    Rewards were how we developed as humans. From crying when we wanted our diapers changed to cuddling up when we wanted to be comforted, we were either treated with a clean diaper or with hugs or we were ignored. If not the former then we have had serious problems all of our lives. But, now as adults, we can reward ourselves. If we can read this article, we can overcome all obstacles that we feel are in our way by ourselves and most importantly for ourselves.

    你打掃完你的房間了嗎?有連續(xù)一個(gè)小時(shí)做運(yùn)動(dòng)嗎?你給朋友打電話并且向他們道歉了嗎?有沒有度過一整天卻沒有抽煙呢?你忍住大嚷大叫,去回憶那些文明諺語了嗎?因?yàn)闆]人會(huì)知道你的無知,除非你自己張口說話。如果你做到了,那么獎(jiǎng)勵(lì)你自己吧!

    你也許會(huì)問:“一個(gè)人怎么會(huì)開始獎(jiǎng)勵(lì)自己呢?”令人吃驚的是許多人都不知道怎樣做會(huì)對(duì)自己好。我找到了這個(gè)問題清單,依據(jù)這些,我知道了:如果我連對(duì)最重要的人,即我自己,都沒有細(xì)心做到這些,那么,很明顯,一生中,我一定也因太消沉而做不到第一段中所提到的事情。所以,我想著要讓一些人注意我談到的內(nèi)容。

    獎(jiǎng)勵(lì)是 存在于我們的動(dòng)機(jī)激發(fā)系統(tǒng)中的內(nèi)在組成部分。Pavlov 發(fā)現(xiàn)了他們,并且很有效地運(yùn)用它們。pavlov 將我們受制約的動(dòng)機(jī)激發(fā)系統(tǒng)概括為最基本的大腦形成習(xí)慣。狗叫了,你把它帶出去。它撒尿了,你會(huì)為它做處理。

    你不想與在城市大廳等你的某人爭(zhēng)執(zhí),那么,昂首挺胸地繼續(xù)走你的路,故意不理會(huì)它的辱罵。因此,你避免了爭(zhēng)執(zhí),回到了家,成功地完成了你的任務(wù)。那么,第二天,你應(yīng)該去購(gòu)物中心修修指甲。

    為使其有效,這種條件作用必須是連續(xù)性的。你可能會(huì)說,我又不是一條狗。當(dāng)然了,我們也不是猴子或太空人。我們訓(xùn)練動(dòng)物,那么我們用什么來培訓(xùn)人類呢?順便提一下,唯恐我們忘記,我們不得不一次又一次提起人類也是動(dòng)物。

    以下是十二種人們用過的有效的獎(jiǎng)勵(lì)方式:

    1. 專門到商店去為你自己買一本新書,雜志,一個(gè)磁帶,一頂帽子。

    2. 睡懶覺。如果你睡不著了,那么躺到你不得不起床為止。

    3.一整天只吃你喜歡的可以作為獎(jiǎng)賞的食物。

    4.剪一個(gè)新發(fā)型。

    5.買一套新的慢跑裝備,新的跑步鞋,和運(yùn)動(dòng)裝備。

    6. 買票去觀看體育比賽或音樂會(huì)。

    7.去看電影或加入netflix.com

    8.款待你自己,好好吃頓午餐。

    9.雇一個(gè)人來幫你做一周的家務(wù)。

    10.計(jì)劃做一些你想要做的事情,而不是你周圍的人要求你做的事情。

    獎(jiǎng)勵(lì)是隨著我們?nèi)祟惖某砷L(zhǎng)而發(fā)展變化的。從該換尿布時(shí)的哭鬧到想要獲得安慰時(shí)的擁抱,我們會(huì)被換上干凈的尿布,被緊緊抱住,或者沒人管。如果沒有被回應(yīng),那么恐怕我們一輩子都會(huì)有嚴(yán)重的問題。但是現(xiàn)在長(zhǎng)大了,我們可以自己獎(jiǎng)勵(lì)自己。如果可以讀到這篇文章,我們就能自己克服所有阻礙我們的難題,最重要的是為了我們自己。