Rewards

Today's post is all about rewards. It turns out, I'm a reward-based person. Actually, I knew this long ago. If I know I've got something good waiting for me, I'll put up with the crap that I have to do to get it.

My puppy is a very food-motivated creature. If there's a cookie waiting for her, she'll learn to sit or come or pee outside. It's very handy to know this. I'm trying to use treats to teach her to stay OFF of the couch. Treats are food, so I know that it will [eventually] work.

I like many different types of rewards. Today, a food reward (cookies from Subway) helped me get through the tedium of cleaning and stocking my rooms at the office. I've got a stash of chocolate in my kitchen, and when I'm trying to organize my apartment, I'll reward myself with a bite-size bar of somethingorother. In November, when I'm doing NaNoWriMo, I'll reward myself with Smarties - one Smartie for every 250 words. I am, of course, talking about the good Canadian Smarties, not the icky American ones. The Canadian ones are 'candy-coated chocolate,' similar to M&Ms, but a million times better.

I'll also reward myself with stickers during NaNo. I keep a poster beside my computer, and for every 1000 words, I get a shiny star on the chart. After 50000 words, that's a lot of bling! And speaking of bling, I often like to reward myself with shopping. I tend to buy movies or yarn - my two favourite things to hoard. I'll also buy Avon jewelery (love it!) or iPod accessories. I've gone for books in the past (I also love to hoard those), but lately I've been borrowing books from coworkers, so I've had stuff to read without purchase.

I reward myself for writing in my blog every night by letting myself read any comments on previous entries, and then looking at my friends' blogs. So help me reward myself - leave comments!

In summary, rewards are good. I will work for rewards.