At Reward the World, we believe in the power of natural rewards to drive success and fulfillment. Natural rewards are intrinsic motivators that bring joy and satisfaction without external incentives.
In this post, we’ll explore natural reward-focused strategies to help you achieve your goals and boost your overall well-being. By understanding and harnessing these innate sources of motivation, you can transform your approach to work, relationships, and personal growth.
What Are Natural Rewards?
The Essence of Intrinsic Motivation
Natural rewards form the core of intrinsic motivation, providing inherent satisfaction from engaging in specific activities or behaviors. These internal motivators play a significant role in driving long-term success and personal fulfillment.
The Impact of Intrinsic Motivation
Natural rewards tap into our innate desires and values, creating enjoyment and satisfaction that surpass external incentives. Research from the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology provides an overview of the conceptualization, measurement, and neurobiology of intrinsic motivation.
Natural Rewards in Various Contexts
Workplace Rewards
In the professional sphere, natural rewards manifest as:
- A sense of accomplishment from completing challenging projects
- Joy derived from collaborating with colleagues
Gallup research shows that engaged employees produce better business outcomes than other employees across industries and company sizes.
Personal Development Rewards
In the realm of personal growth, natural rewards include:
- The feeling of mastery when acquiring new skills
- Peace of mind resulting from maintaining a healthy lifestyle
Leveraging Natural Rewards for Success
To effectively harness natural rewards, you should identify activities that bring genuine joy and satisfaction. Try keeping a journal for a week, noting moments of peak engagement and fulfillment. This practice helps pinpoint your personal natural rewards and aligns your goals accordingly.
The next step involves incorporating these natural rewards into your daily routines. If problem-solving excites you, actively seek opportunities to tackle complex challenges at work. For those who find satisfaction in helping others, consider dedicating time to volunteering or mentoring.
The Role of Natural Rewards in Business
Many businesses (including Reward the World) recognize the power of natural rewards in driving employee engagement and customer loyalty. By creating reward systems that tap into these intrinsic motivators, companies can foster higher engagement levels and achieve long-term success.
As we move forward, let’s explore strategies for identifying these powerful intrinsic motivators in your own life and work.
How to Uncover Your Natural Rewards
Keep a Peak Experience Journal
Start a daily journal for at least two weeks. Record moments when you feel most energized, engaged, or satisfied. Be specific about the activities, the context, and your emotional state. This practice helps you spot patterns in what truly motivates you.
A study published in the Journal of Research in Personality found that individuals who regularly reflect on their positive experiences show increased well-being and life satisfaction.
Analyze Your Values
Take time to assess your core values. What principles guide your decisions? What matters most to you in life? Tools like the Personal Values Assessment (PVA) can help you clarify your values. Once identified, consider how these values align with your daily activities and long-term goals.
Track Your Energy Levels
Throughout your day, note when your energy peaks and dips. Are there specific tasks or interactions that consistently boost your mood? These energy spikes often indicate activities aligned with your natural rewards.
The Energy Project (a consulting firm specializing in sustainable high performance) reports that employees who take regular breaks to renew their energy are 50% more engaged, more focused, and more motivated.
Seek Constructive Feedback
Don’t underestimate the power of external perspectives. Ask trusted colleagues, friends, or family members what they perceive as your strengths and when they see you most engaged. Their observations can provide valuable insights into your natural rewards that you might overlook.
A Gallup study found that 80% of employees who say they have received meaningful feedback in the past week are fully engaged, highlighting the importance of external input in understanding personal motivators.
Experiment with New Experiences
Step out of your comfort zone and try new activities. This exploration can reveal unexpected sources of natural rewards. Whether it’s a new hobby, a different work project, or volunteering, diverse experiences broaden your understanding of what truly motivates you.
Reflect on your proudest accomplishments. What about these experiences brought you the most satisfaction? Was it the challenge, the collaboration, the creativity, or something else? These reflections can unveil the natural rewards that have driven your past successes.
These strategies will give you a clearer picture of your personal natural rewards. This understanding is invaluable for aligning your goals and daily activities with your intrinsic motivators, leading to greater fulfillment and success in both personal and professional spheres.
Now that you’ve identified your natural rewards, let’s explore how to implement them effectively in your daily life and work environment.
How to Integrate Natural Rewards into Your Daily Routine
Redesign Your Tasks
Examine your regular tasks and responsibilities. Look for ways to infuse elements that tap into your natural rewards. If you thrive on social interaction, consider turning solitary work into collaborative projects. Collaborative work has risen 50% or more over the past decade to consume 85% or more of most people’s work time.
For tasks you can’t change, find ways to connect them to your broader goals or values. This mental reframing can transform mundane activities into meaningful steps towards personal growth. The American Psychological Association reports that finding personal meaning in work activities significantly increases motivation and job satisfaction.
Create a Supportive Environment
Your physical and social environment plays a crucial role in sustaining natural rewards. Surround yourself with people who support your goals and share your values. A study explored the associations of occupational stressors, perceived organizational support, and work engagement among healthcare workers.
Modify your physical space to reinforce your natural rewards. If you find joy in creativity, set up an inspiring workspace with art supplies readily available. For those who value learning, create a dedicated reading nook or invest in quality headphones for uninterrupted podcast listening.
Set Aligned Goals
When you set goals, ensure they resonate with your identified natural rewards. Instead of focusing solely on outcomes, emphasize the process and how it aligns with your intrinsic motivators. Research published in the Journal of Applied Psychology indicates that process-oriented goals lead to higher levels of intrinsic motivation compared to outcome-oriented goals.
Break down larger objectives into smaller, manageable tasks that provide frequent opportunities for experiencing natural rewards. This approach not only makes progress more tangible but also provides regular doses of intrinsic motivation.
Track Progress and Celebrate Wins
Implement a system to track your progress and celebrate small wins. This could be as simple as a daily checklist or a more elaborate journaling practice (try different methods to find what works best for you). The key is to regularly acknowledge your achievements and how they connect to your natural rewards.
Leverage Technology
Use technology to your advantage. Many apps and platforms can help you integrate natural rewards into your daily routine. These tools can track habits, provide reminders, and even gamify your progress, making the process more engaging and enjoyable.
Final Thoughts
Natural reward-focused strategies offer a powerful approach to achieve success and fulfillment in personal and professional spheres. These intrinsic motivators transform daily experiences and long-term outcomes when we understand, identify, and implement them effectively. Self-reflection, value analysis, and energy tracking help uncover hidden sources of natural rewards.
Integrating these rewards into daily routines involves redesigning tasks, creating supportive environments, and setting aligned goals. This approach leads to increased job satisfaction, improved mental well-being, and sustained motivation. Small steps can lead to significant transformations over time, creating a positive feedback loop that fuels continuous growth and achievement.
We encourage you to start implementing these strategies today by identifying one area of your life where you can introduce more intrinsic motivation. Reward the World offers businesses a comprehensive solution to harness the power of rewards, providing instant rewards across various categories (to suit all demographics and budgets). The journey towards a more rewarding life is ongoing, so embrace the process and continue to refine your understanding of what truly motivates you.