Sticker Charts for 40 Year Olds

I just turned 40 the other day and realized I might not live forever. So, I've decided to try to do something about that - the usual: eat better, exercise more, go to bed earlier. These are all things I've worked on at various other times in my life that somehow didn't quite stick. The irony is that what I do for a living is figuring out how to motivate other people to adopt healthy behaviors. Why is it so hard to apply social marketing concepts to myself?

I thought about the benefits that I would get from becoming healthier, the barriers that I would need to overcome, how to remind myself to do these things in the places where I will see them and motivate myself to keep going once the novelty wears off...

And I realized that the answer is something that has been so much a part of my life as a mommy that I didn't even see it right in front of me. What have I done to motivate my kids, when they were younger, to do something they didn't want to do, whether it was getting through swim lessons, being polite or going to the potty themselves? Sticker charts! They got a sticker for each time they did what I wanted them to do, and after a certain number of stickers they would get a prize of their choosing -- a My Little Pony, a pack of Yu-Gi-Oh cards, whatever worked. And they did work!

So I sat down and created myself a grown-up version of a sticker chart, with columns for each behavior I want to try to do each day and a row for each day of the month. Since I'm 40, I guess I don't need actual stickers; checkmarks will do. I have five sets of behaviors I want to try to do each day, and I decided that once I accumulate 100 checkmarks I will treat myself to a reward just for me. I'm not sure yet what it will be, since there's not really a THING that I'm lusting after. Maybe it will be something like a guilt-free morning spent lying on the beach, a visit to the museum alone without complaining kids tugging at me, a massage, or something else that feels special.

Sustaining motivation, setting goals, finding the right rewards -- these are all things we have to take into consideration when we create social marketing programs aimed at other people. It's when you have to apply it to yourself that the concepts really come to life. What have you done in the past to motivate yourself to reach your own goals?

Photo Credit: Breeezy