How To Be Motivated by Tiny Rewards
How does keeping tiny rewards of smelly bits of salmon and sweet potato in your pocket become part of spiritual practice? What would motivate you to keep little brown bits like these in your pocket anyway?
Well, if you have never had a dog you may say “nothing”; but for those who understand what moves a canine companion to come, sit, fetch and lie down, kibble is pure gold.
Watching how my dog responds to the reward of this tiny treat with rapt attention and keen devotion makes me wonder if there isn’t something I could learn from always having kibble nearby for myself.
Tiny Rewards for People
For my dog, there is no reward greater than a compressed nugget of salmon and sweet potato that must smell as sweet as popcorn smells to me when I haven’t eaten all day.
Or perhaps warm chocolate cake just out of the oven. I can imagine myself doing many things on command for the promise of a bite of that cake.
What I need to figure out is how to carry nuggets of warm chocolate cake in my pocket without smushing it all through my clothes. And then, how to take just one crumb at a time as a reward for doing something that I need to do.
Can you imagine a crumb of cake for making the bed, another for vacuuming and yet another for getting the bills paid?
Photo by Bret Jordan on Unsplash
No, I am not sure I would be as faithful for crumbs of cake as my dog is for dried salmon and sweet potato.
It is really more about the principle of kibble, because one way or the other we are rewarded for what we do, or we wouldn’t be doing it.
There is always a payoff.
If I wash the dishes, I get to eat on clean plates, I stay healthier, and I don’t gross out visitors who come to my home.
The payoff for paying my bills is staying out of jail and my reward for vacuuming the floor is my socks don’t pick up all the dog hair left by the dog. (Photo by Scott-Umstattd on Unsplash)
I use these examples because these are chores that I have always resisted doing until I understood the principle of kibble. I learned that teeny little rewards motivate me as much as they do my dog.
So what are some ‘kibble’ that keeps me moving through my day accomplishing all manner of amazing feats akin to jumping through hoops and running figure eights with a ball in my mouth?
What? You’ve never competed in an obstacle course before?
How else can we view life? Life is either a fun all-out crazy game of chase, fetch and tug-of-war or it is a drudging series of chores. What makes the difference? Kibble.
What are Some Tiny Rewards that
Motivate and Bring Joy?
The Dawn
Let me share some of the kibble in my life that keeps me panting with joy, even if all I am doing is chasing my tail.
My first tiny reward happens early in the day when the sun comes up.
I wouldn’t miss getting up before sunrise because that is the only way I get to witness the light as it filters through the darkness. A mystical ‘thin place’ as the Irish would say, the dawn is a place of mystery between night and day, a veil between heaven and earth.
The Celts have a saying “Heaven and earth are only three feet apart, but in thin places, that distance is even shorter.”
The dawn only lasts for a moment, like a tiny piece of kibble, and then it is gone, giving way to full sunrise and the call of a new day.
I am very selfish and greedy about the dawn and I am glad there is enough of it to go around.
Silence
The next piece of kibble I yearn for would be a moment of silence.
I can reach for this reward at any point in my day and I often forget how close at hand it is.
I take a cue from my dog who lifts an ear in anticipation and waits patiently. (Photo by Kristina Flour on Unsplash)
What am I waiting for in my moment of silence?
I wait until awareness of my breathing overrides the clatter in my brain and peace settles over my whole being. This one moment of mindfulness is more rewarding than a whole bowl full of dried salmon and sweet potato.
Smiles
The third piece of kibble for which I will gladly turn circles of delight is a smile.
Sometimes, like kibble, smiles get hidden in the cracks of life and they are hard to get a grip on. I act as if they are hard to release.
When I receive only a little piece of a smile from a stranger I suddenly understand why a dog’s tail wags.
Kibble.
And this I gladly share. My smile becomes a kibble-reward in another person’s day.
Acts of Kindness
I would be remiss if I didn’t comment on small acts of kindness in my pocket of kibble.
These are the opportunities to let the approaching car in the parking lot have the last space. Of course, I will have to wait for another spot (a mindful moment?) or walk a longer distance (much-needed exercise). Both gifts I wouldn’t receive without this little act of kindness. (Photo by Matt Collamer on Unsplash)
When my dog is busy chewing a bone, watching the cat from a distance or snoring on his bed, he never fails to wake up and be at full alert when he knows there is kibble nearby.
So often I bemoan that I am stumbling through life only half awake.
My spiritual practice of waking up to what’s around me gets buried by…guess what?
Everything around me!
For this moment at least I am aware I have a tiny reward waiting in my pocket. I am able to pause in anticipation, my left ear twitching. It only takes a morsel and I am happy as a dog. (Photo by Jen Theodore on Unsplash)
May you find the kibble in your own pocket this week and be generous in receiving…and sharing… it.
And if you would like to find other things you can learn from your dog be sure to check out this post.
