Weekend Rewards Open Comments

I finally reached one of my personal goals. I promised to reward myself, so I’m planning on arranging for a massage at a local massage school.
I remember writing a commendation letter for a guy who worked with the city for going above and beyond in helping me with a problem. I found out later that he was given recognition in the city employees’ newsletter, along with a $500 bonus. It made his day, getting recognition from all of his friends and seeing his name in the newsletter. (He soon after received a promotion, too.) The guy who originally took my call and refused to help me sat there and sulked. Tough nuts.
Little kids in school get gold stars. My second grade teacher handed out “vitamins” (pieces of candy) for good behavior or good effort. I toss candy to my kids in class to encourage participation.
I taught our dog to roll over using pieces of sausage, and when those ran out, watermelon. I found out that she LOVED watermelon! (It took me about a half hour to get her to roll over, by the way.) Other behavior (not running out of the door, not snapping at food, etc.) was reinforced with lots of love and positive reinforcement. I loved that dog!
My children were given near continuous positive reinforcement when they exhibited good behaviors, like playing together and sharing. I believed in reinforcing positive behaviors rather than paying attention to bad behavior, so I was always on my toes to catch them “doing good”. They got a lot of reinforcing comments. I actually loved them more than the dog. 😉
I guess our lives are defined by the positive and negative reinforcements that we get. From our parents to our government to our friends to our pets, our morals and our behaviors are formed by the environments in which we grow.