An interesting study recently published in the Journal of the American Heart Association (JAHA)1 confirms what we all learned when we were children – and serves as food for thought as to how you can improve your practice and your personal life.
Remember when you wanted to go do something fun (play outside, watch TV, etc.), but hadn't finished your dinner yet? Maybe it was vegetables or some other food of which you weren't especially fond. It was just sitting there on your plate, practically staring at you. Then your mother said, "You can go play after you eat your peas."
There it was: the reward you needed to motivate you to eat those peas. Once the deal was struck, you wolfed them down in three bites and headed off hurriedly in hopes there were no addendums to the offer.
The JAHA study separated 105 ischemic heart disease (IHD) patients into two groups. Each member of the intervention group received an activity tracking device that measured daily steps, with goals increased gradually to 10,000 steps during the first eight weeks and then held constant for the remaining 16 weeks of the 24-week study period.
Intervention group participants were presented with a $2 per day incentive to meet their step goal. If they made the daily goal, they kept the $2. If they didn't, they lost it. At the end of the study, the intervention group averaged more than 1,000 steps per day more than the control group, which was not offered the $2 per day incentive.
While $2 per day doesn't sound like that much (although it would add up over the course of the study period – $14 per week or $336 for meeting every step goal over 24 weeks), it clearly produced dramatic results for these IHD patients. But on a broader scale, it teaches us about the importance of goals and rewards.
Think about your practice for a moment. We are two-thirds of the way through 2018. What goals has your practice yet to reach? What is your staff not doing that they should be doing? Could it be that the goals have not been met because you haven't instituted any rewards? You have four more months to find out.
How about your personal life? It may sound a bit simple, but what would happen if you created viable, meaningful rewards for your own efforts to better maintain your health (or do something else you are challenged to do consistently)? These would have to be rewards formally established; you get them if you do certain things and you don't get them if you don't. No cheating.
We've seen this in the world of weight loss, which constantly stresses the importance of setting goals and rewarding people for achieving them. Charts monitor progress and goals are clearly defined.
With only about four months left in the year, it's time to take one more look at what you have and haven't accomplished in 2018. The holidays will be upon us before you know it.
Take a minute to think about goals and rewards in your professional life and your personal life. Maybe you can establish a goal for your children or a family goal. Whatever goals you decide to set, create motivating rewards to accompany them. This is how you can reward yourself for accomplishing them.
Reference
Read more findings on my blog: http://blog.toyourhealth.com/wrblog/. You can also visit me on Facebook.
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