Reward Yourself

You saw some inspirational video on YouTube or talked to someone that challenged you and now you’re on fire. You work all day, get more done than you did the entire week and go to bed as a proud human.

The next day it’s all back to how it was before. How? Why? What happened? I mean, you know it’s physically possible to kick ass---so why don’t you?

These moments of inspiration are great because they can kickstart us into a new project, a different idea of maybe just back in the right direction. However, extraordinary results are not made in a day.

They require consistency. They require the confidence to take baby steps and keep taking them, even if you don’t see the results right now. They require you to fall in love with the process.

It’s not about willpower. It’s not about discipline. It’s about building a habit.

You see, you can’t make yourself do things forever. It’s not a continuous grind or “hustle”; rather, it’s about molding your mindset so that you’re naturally drawn to do the most important things, and to do that every day. It should be an effortless current that kind of pulls you along for the ride.

So the trick to making consistency effortless is making it fun. To infuse it with rewards everywhere along the way. Reward yourself by looking back at what you achieved today, take some time to be proud and then, in the evening, just enjoy---go out and have dinner with friends, read a good book or watch a movie. Then, tomorrow, you’ll get up again and happily work towards the rewards at the end of the day.

Because being too hard on yourself just kills your motivation. You can be joyous while you’re working and growing. You can still have wonderful relationships with your significant other, your kids and your friends. And you get there by falling in love with the process, by honoring the struggle and by enjoying every step of the way.

So teach yourself that a day of work means having fun at the end. It’s these days that count, not the big achievements or rewards far into the future.

They’ll be there, trust me. They’re there for all the people that work on something great consistently, and with joy.