Rewards of Success
The Two Categories of Rewards
Let’s be honest here, when you hear the word ‘reward’ ideas of money spring to mind don’t they? Not necessarily images of you in yatch, wind in your hair and a glass of champagne, but still materialistic ideas. Ideas of being able to pay for things without a care in the world. That’s okay, to think that way is natural. I’m not going to get on my high horse and preach about how it’s awful to desire things because we all do.
Money is indeed a reward and one of the main reasons that we get a job. Money and materialistic items are great motivators, and something we give up our time and energy to be rewarded with. But it’s important to know that they are not the only reward of success, or shouldn’t be anyway. Materialistic rewards of success should always be kept separate from the personal rewards of success if you want a full life.
A career, project, hobby that gives us the money, the car, the house is great but… the fact that it gives us identity, structure and valuability should also be the rewards we are hungry for, because they are rewards that nobody could ever take from us.
You won’t be remembered for how much you earnt, how expensive your shoes were or what you got for Christmas. You’ll be remembered for being the best you could be. The way you reacted to life, the things that you did and saw. Success means something different to everyone, because we all aim for different things.
As an aspiring writer, for me it means becoming published, but to another it might be as simple as being a good parent. Whatever you’re aiming for, there should always be a personal reward in it. Something that you know you will cherish and feel valuable for earning yourself.
The fact that the hobby, project or career might help us to get a yatch, make your families proud and to move to London is overwhelmingly brilliant, but the real reward isn’t the money. It’s being able to smile and say you paid for the yatch on your own.
It’s looking at your mum as she mouths ‘well-done’ as your handed your degree and knowing that all of those sleepless nights we’re worth it in the end; because she’s finally proud of you. It’s looking out of the window and being excited to face the day, everyday. It’s about being able to tell your life story with pride.
Anyone can buy a shiny car. But not everyone can whistle whilst they drive it.
Why Do We Have Rewards?
It’s easy nowadays to simply shrug off our achievements big or small, but giving yourself credit for our hard work is priceless.
There is nothing more motivating than standing back and taking a look at what you’ve already achieved from all your efforts and hard work, enjoying the rewards of our time and our energy. If you can see that the results are rewarding to you, if you can remember how it felt to achieve, then the chances are that you’ll want to carry on and reach further. It’s the reason why someone trying to loose weight will plod on if they see that, yes, it is working! The reason why a writer might be more willing to put their efforts into a second book. We come to associate working hard with feeling valuable, which is often why we often feel a sudden burst of drive after we’ve ticked a box on a list.
It’s because it’s rewarding to us. Therefore it is motivating.
After every accomplishment; whether it’s a task in a project or a full project itself, before looking at how you can learn and improve it, it’s important to take the time to reflect over what you have gained from the experience. How it has made you more valuable. How it has rewarded you.
Rewards are there to help us feel great about what we’ve done; motivate us to do more and to give us something to show for how our lives are shaping out. If discovering and planning we’re the ingredients for your success, our rewards are the product if you like, the measure. No-one bakes a cake and throws it away and it’s the same with success.
We enjoy it, share it and maybe bake another one if we have the time. If there weren’t rewards for people who made it, a shiny prize as the end of each struggle, then nobody would be motivated to achieve because you’d never be repaid for the work that you did.
That’s why a lot of our role models reflect what we truly want in life; because they already achieved the reward we are aiming for. Without a reward of some kind, there would be no divide between the successful and the not successful.
You might say to me that you don’t do what you do to be rewarded. You might be someone who is out saving the Koala bear. But the reasons behind this are ultimately selfish… because you benefit from it. It makes you feel good, so you keep doing it.
If there was no prize to chase, we wouldn’t chase. So it’s important to be selfish sometimes, to start a project by thinking about what you want from it in the end. Rewards mean more if they are earnt and when you achieve what you aim for its important.
So always be honest with yourself about your ambitions, the reward that will inspire and satisfy you whether it’s something as simple as ‘leave a positive image in other people’s minds’ or as complex as ‘take over the world’. Understand yourself, work hard and you will achieve.
So Enjoy it!
The difference between a successful person and a non-successful person isn’t the size of their house or the weight of their wallet. But the difference between a successful person and a non-successful person is the size of their smile and the feeling in their heart. It’s up to us what the rewards for our successes are, up to us what we feel we have achieved from all of our hard work and it’s up to us to decide whether or not we feel successful.
There will always be someone society classes as richer than you, smarter than you, more famous than you… but just because there is no recognition for happiness, that doesn’t mean that you can’t be the happiest, most fulfilled individual to walk the earth. Happiness comes from the inside not the outside. Rewards loose their value if they don’t mean something to the person who’s achieved them.
Success Is Its Own Reward
Excuse the cliché but really, success is it’s own reward. Success is living the way you want to. Success is being inspired and fulfilled by who you are and what you do. Success is using your values to work towards you goals. It’s what we attract by the person we become. So be the best that you can be and you’ll be happy. Good luck!
Wrote by Aimee Hall