I was flailing around in the pool today at water aerobics. I don’t teach anymore…I’m enjoying myself as a participant again. (This is a very good thing.) Anyway, I was tooling along when I realized I could go a little harder. And then I thought, “What if we were all wearing heart rate monitors and whoever worked the hardest today got $100?”
Obviously there was no hundred dollars. But it was such a tangible notion that every time I felt myself just faffing around, I thought “A hundred dollars,” and got with the program.
I wonder what else I could bribe myself to achieve for a nonexistent hundred bucks. But it seems to me it can’t be overused or, with no reward coming, the tactic will eventually backfire.
Jordan Castillo Price 