Step 4: The Best Ways to Reward Yourself

• Reward yourself materially for target behaviors. Examples abound: dinner at your favorite restaurant, a ticket to a play, a nap, a manicure, and so on. Select from the list of consumables, activities, people, self-talk, and token rewards. 
• Keep the rewards contingent on meeting a pre-specified step. “Cheating” by giving yourself the reward even though you didn’t meet the stated goal only weakens your resolve. Implement a cause-effect relationship and stick to it!
• Reward each baby step taken toward the bigger, overall step. As discussed, you will not reach the final goal overnight, so plan to reinforce each and every baby step toward it with a reward. (You may recall, if you took Intro to Psychology, that this process is known as shaping.) Most complex human behavior develops this way, be it speech, exam-taking, or sports. So reward yourself for the successive small steps and then slightly up the ante; give yourself a reward, say, for walking a half mile and then give yourself another reward for going three-quarters of a mile and so on. 

After reading these best ways to reward yourself, what changes will you be taking to reward yourself effectively?