You’ve probably heard of the “carrot and stick motivation.” That’s what it’s called when – figuratively speaking – a carrot is used as an inducement to encourage a wanted behavior, and a stick as a deterrent to discourage an unwanted one. Well, I don’t quite remember when it started, but at some point in my life I began using “carrots” to motivate myself to complete certain tasks. In hindsight, I don’t think that was a good idea.
Like when my favorite leisure activity, hiking, became a bit too challenging for my taste. I used the prospect of a picturesque view to spur me up the mountain. That worked, but somewhere down the road (or up the hill 😉) the view was no longer enough of an incentive. So, I switched it up and told myself that hiking will give me a good workout. When that lost its appeal, I resorted to rewarding myself with a delicious energy bar afterwards. In other words, with every motivation, the need for being motivated increased.
Over time, I needed a reward for almost every action. And when that wasn’t enough, it grew into instant gratification: I listened to music while hiking; I watched TV while cooking; I read books while riding the stationary bike.
Eventually I skipped the performance altogether and went straight to the incentive: I treated myself to energy bars even though I hadn’t hiked, and watched TV without lifting as much as a finger, let alone cooking a meal.
In other words, I didn’t use the carrots as motivation anymore. I ate them. All of them.
I had sweetened the discomfort of mountain climbing with incentives like energy bars. But after a while, the treats became the sole source of satisfaction and I overindulged. Before long, the energy bars became as unappealing as hiking up the mountain.
As time went on, hardly anything was satisfactory anymore. It almost seemed that by using pleasurable things to make unpleasant ones more tolerable, the fun stuff just wasn’t much fun anymore.
And so I decided to let go of the carrots …
Brigitte Schneider
fka (formerly known as) Ms. Bunny Rabbit
Copyright © 2022, Brigitte Schneider. If you wish to quote text from this article contact the author by leaving a comment.
😂 have a glass of wine! 🥰