When you’ve put a lot of heavily concentrated raw effort into something for a long time and you get a positive result, reward yourself. It’s a simple concept; seems unnecessary perhaps, but it’s not an ego-boost I’m talking about, it’s a simple technique to get yourself to do unpleasant things, to put energy into a grinding, demanding project, without reserve.
But what exactly is a “reward”, and for what do we give it, and who pays for it, anyway?
Gosh darn it, I always ask myself harder questions than I actually get. Well, what the heck, I’ll take a run at it:
A reward is something we get or get to do, eat, wear or drive as a way of thanking ourselves for doing something unpleasant, a grinding, perhaps repetitive, task.
Note that I indicated above that a reward in this sense is something we give or allow ourselves, not something we got from someone else who just happened by.
In the ordinary course of daily events, we do this all the time, but we seldom train ourselves to take note of its constant use, such as taking a cigarette and a cup of coffee at a work-break, or eating an extra helping of mince pie because you mowed the lawn or did a grocery errand or a VW drove by your house.
Oh, sure, some might regard the VW driving by as a weak sort of excuse to treat self to a goodie, but I beg to disagree.
Maybe you think “rewards” is a cheap way to train your organic self to respond???
You’d be wrong. It’s the kindest method available. The alternative is the kind of thing you’d expect from a Drill Sergeant, and I’d not tend to encourage that among ardent Buddha Fans.
So why do I encourage — nay, insist upon, not merely encourage — rewards in the Prosperity Path Training System?
Because rewards work. They really do. A cream-puff after a tough Prosperity Path work-session on a tough subject will have an amazing effect on your body’s willingness to go through more of it in the future, and that’s exactly what you have in mind.
The idea is that a spoonful of sugar does, indeed, make the medicine go down. Julie Andrews was more than just a local Goddess of the 1960s, she was a fountain of wisdom, and that phrase, “a spoonful of sugar” says it all.
The grittier the Prosperity Path Orb is, the nicer, the fancier, the more bountiful and fun the reward will be; I make sure of that for myself and those around me. Punishment for failure? Doesn’t work, never did and it never will. Creates more future problems than it solves in the immediate present. In short, not a good idea.
Rewards work. They really work. They work well. And boy, are they fun, or they can be if you make them fun!
Here’s how:
Just finished running a real sweat-hog level? Feel exhilarated but at the same time wrung out to dry? How odd, I feel exactly like that at this very moment. Hmmm. Perhaps a reward on this end of the Blog might be in order.
Yes, it is good. I will go to lunch. Salad. Bean Stew. Soup. It is good.
You can do the same. Reward yourself now and then for a job well done. Download a Rewards Orb! Send one to a friend!
Rewards Orbs — at your local Bardo Grocer’s, real soon! What is the Greatest Joy???
There’s a reward for the first correct answer, but I will not publish the answer. Find out for yourself. Think for yourself. Figure it out for yourself. Do the math. Look around. Open your eyes. Now then, what better opportunity for a reward?
Special thanks to KD for the swell photos!
See You At The Top!!!
gorby