Rewarding Yourself for Progress: Recognize Your Achievements

Rewarding yourself for the progress you’ve made is a great way to recognize how far you’ve come while keeping your motivation high.

Last week, we talked about self-evaluating your progress as a way to stay on course. This is something that many people overlook; instead, they think they haven’t made any progress until they’ve completely met a goal.

Rewarding Yourself for Progress

A well-defined goal has many steps along the way - you should feel accomplished when reaching any one of these milestones and you might want to reward yourself when you get there, too.

In some ways, recognizing your progress is a reward in itself. It means you have increased your self-efficacy, your abilities, and your health. 

There are many intrinsic rewards that follow from increased physical activity: improved mood, less anxiety, better sleep, and many more.

These kinds of rewards aren’t usually instant. For example, you might not immediately feel the effects of your serotonin increasing after a workout, but eventually your mind will associate exercise with feeling good. 

And maybe those aren’t even the rewards you are interested in. Exercise is also an opportunity to satisfy our social needs by doing them with friends, whether it’s team sports or heading out to the park.

Now, you might have opened this article expecting to read about things you can “give” yourself or “treat” yourself with.

This is a great thing to do, but can backfire if done irresponsibly. When you reward yourself after reaching your physical activity target for the week or hitting a milestone in a major goal, you get a dopamine boost in your brain, making you feel good. 

In turn, this helps increase or maintain your motivation. Subconsciously, your mind builds a connection between your hard work and the good feeling that comes after. 

Using this little piece of science can help you solidify habits. But, what is a good reward?

Choosing Smart Rewards

Well, that largely depends on you and what you consider to be a reward, as well as how much work you need to do to earn one.

However, there is one thing we don’t recommend: rewarding yourself with junk food. It’s important not to see working out and weight loss as a license to dive into a box of chocolates or eat some greasy fast food.

After exercise, your body doesn’t need unhealthy food. It does, however, need rest. Instead of ordering a pizza, give yourself a couple of hours to watch a movie after meeting your movement goals for the week.

You don’t need to eliminate less healthy habits like watching TV or playing video games. It might be something you really enjoy. Just make these activities the reward instead of the norm.

Of course, you shouldn’t forget to change your nutrition habits as you increase your level of exercise. It’s important to eat a balanced diet after working out.

Another strategy is to “give” yourself a little bit of money after completing your workouts by putting $5 in a jar to save up for something you really want. It could go towards clothes or even a trip.

When you reach a major milestone, see how much you have saved and get yourself a nice treat.

If you have an accountability partner, let them know what your rewards system is. This creates some accountability, ensuring you aren’t overdoing it. Perhaps they’ll even suggest you be more generous with yourself.

You can also work towards a shared reward that you both need to make progress to earn.

Recognizing Yourself

Most importantly, always take a moment for yourself after an accomplishment. It’s a healthy mindfulness practice to recognize your efforts and encourage yourself to keep going. 

It’s all about incentives. What is your incentive for taking control of your health? What is your incentive for doing today’s workout?

Take a moment to write it down and even post it on your wall if you like. Feel free to share it with us on social media, too!

Good luck!