Day 16:        Reward Yourself.

    Learn to celebrate the small successes because small successes lead to big successes. 

    Don’t disparage your accomplishments.  Women have been taught to be modest but it is more than okay to be proud of your accomplishments.

    When you have big dreams or goals, you need to set up a series of benchmarks to mark your progress.  When you reach each milestone, reward yourself and take time to look back at where you started and to see how far you have come.  Sometimes we get into this mentality of beating ourselves up because we haven’t reached our goal or because we are not as good at something as we want to be.  And this is not about giving ourselves an “A for Effort” if the effort isn’t bringing forth results.  The benchmarks that you set in place will be based upon real progress. 

    For example, say you want to lose 25 pounds.  You set a goal of losing that weight over the next four months.  You tend to lose weight a little faster at the beginning of a diet and exercise program and then it slows down until that last five stubborn pounds. So maybe you reward yourself at the ten pound mark, the fifteen pound, the twenty pound and then save a huge reward for that last five pounds.  But you tie that weight loss reward in with a time frame.  You have to lose ten pounds the first month, then five pounds each month after that.  You don’t lose the weight on time, you don’t get the reward.  If you hit the benchmark a little earlier than expected, give yourself extra kudos.  If you aren’t hitting your goals on time, reassess your goals.  Are they reasonable?  If so, you are not doing what you need to do and you need to reassess how much you really want to achieve that goal.  Because the rewards may help encourage you, but reaching a goal, whether it is weight loss or learning a new language or finishing college will always come down to how much you want it in your heart.  

    The beautiful thing about receiving kudos or rewards when you have actually accomplished something is that you know that you earned those accolades.  So revel in them.  Be proud of yourself.  And use the knowledge that you have met the benchmarks you set as proof that you will reach your overall goals.  Because you will.