reward yourself

welcome to introspection ft. harsehaj! ⭐️ i’m harsehaj, a 19 y/o always up to something in social good x tech.

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onto today’s topic: reward yourself 🥇 

for commitments, like school, where the journey itself isn’t necessarily enjoyable or a reward, it’s important to incentivize yourself to meet your goals. i’ve noticed that i never really need to reward myself when i’m working on projects or towards goals i’m genuinely invested in (ex. hitting the gym, deploying a dev project, meeting a subscriber milestone for this blog) because the activity is satisfying alone. ⭐️ 

we don’t always get to do what we want in life though, and you should treat yourself for powering through it nonetheless. not really sure how i feel about the opposite though: punishing yourself for not meeting those goals. 😬 

that veers on the edge of dangerous territory that can plant the seeds for some seriously unhealthy habits. sure, a public embarrassment punishment or locking away your phone for a few days are good examples of productive (and harmless) punishments. refusing to eat or locking yourself in the library because you didn’t ace an exam, on the other hand, is not okay. i don’t care if it’s effective. 🤷‍♀️ 

your positive incentive should far outweigh the fear of a punishment. promise yourself a weekend trip or concert for accomplishing something really hard. you don’t have to rely on discipline alone to reach the finish line, even if self-help books say otherwise.

reward yourself. :)

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