Celebrate your wins

Human beings, just like any other organism, depend on a cycle of feedback and response, work and rest.  Viewed this way, our highly developed mind can work either for us or against us.  After all, it is our ability to think that has allowed us to adapt to and control our environment to some extent.  Other animals don’t have this privilege – or curse.  Have you ever heard about an overstressed dog or a cat suffering from burn out?

Sometimes, we humans use our minds so much that we fail to appreciate the power of positive reinforcement.  We can become so immersed in our work or, conversely, in our guilt for failing to do what we were supposed to do that we tend to forget about conditioning, the natural method of habit building.

The Carrot and the Stick
As funny as it seems, the carrot and the stick method of training animals can also be applied to us – although just the carrot applies in time management.  We should build good habits through rewards.  This is positive reinforcement.  In layman’s term, this is celebrating your wins.

Celebrating wins is an integral part of reinforcing a good habit.
 
When we were kids, we were usually given toys or something special whenever we got high marks.  Even Santa supposedly rewards good kids with gifts every Christmas.  Looking back, all our good habits were probably products of positive reinforcement during our childhood years.

The same rule applies when learning how to become an effective time manager.  By celebrating wins, we weave the effective time management habit strand by strand until it becomes a natural part of ourselves.  By celebrating our wins, we reward ourselves when we accomplish our time management goals.  This reward feels good so we strive to “win” more by doing what we have to do. 

Through this method of positive reinforcement, therefore, keeping promises and maximising productivity becomes a natural part of feeling good.  By celebrating wins, furthermore, we give ourselves time to rest and to relax so that we can be refreshed and thus eager to overcome subsequent obstacles.

Celebrating Wins
Celebrating wins means rewarding ourselves whenever we achieve something worth celebrating.  Most people do this by having one big prize at the finish line – say, a vacation trip to the Bahamas or a new car.  However, some people end up becoming frustrated instead as their goals are too far away in the future and too hard to accomplish.

Thus, it is important that you focus on celebrating small wins instead of big ones.  Break big goals down into smaller pieces then celebrate small wins; that is, reward yourself whenever you achieve one of your small goals.  Instead of a trip to the Bahamas for increasing your sales by 100%, perhaps, you can treat yourself to dinner in your favourite restaurant for every contract won.

By celebrating small wins instead of big wins, you will succeed in reinforcing your time management habit.  You will not burn out before you achieve something worth celebrating so you get motivated to go on to the next challenge.  Eventually, effective time management will become so ingrained that you’ll find it no hard task to achieve your big goal.  You shall deserve that trip to the Bahamas soon, you’ll see.