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I love baked cheesecake but cannot eat it much, too much sugar. I'm actually pretty good at not having cheesecake very often at all, I am very disciplined and know how to say no to myself and move on; this doesn't mean I don't think about cheesecake I didn't have of course, but it means another positive step for my health and longevity of life.

A while ago I decided that I should reward myself with baked cheesecake now and then so attached it to an event, a win at work, as a celebration to mark the effort and result.

Rewarding oneself commensurate to the size of achievement is a nice way to underpin it then draw a line beneath before moving on to more effort and more results. I never used to do it, I'd just push forward from win to win and never really stop to appreciate my efforts, but I learned the benefit of celebrating those wins how it helped me drive on to the next, do the hard work, and I've been more productive for it.

This doesn't mean I reward myself with a trip to Europe each time I have a work-win or great result, the reward is always proportionate to the win, a little thing to look forward to at the end of sustained effort and the ensuing result, setting the reward prior to the process beginning gives an additional focus.

Last week I had a couple big wins at work making me super happy considering the effort I'd made. And...I said yes to cheesecake.

I hit a favourite cafe on the way home to collect consume my reward - baked blueberry cheesecake and coffee - reflecting on my achievement, effort and process, and what I learned along the way like what went well, where I might improve and so on. Mostly, I just ate fucken cheesecake.

I'd like to have shown an awesome image of cheesecake and coffee but figured I'd go a different way, show my creative side, and show you the aftermath of my cheesecake reward session.

Blueberry cheesecake fucken smashed ✅

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I believe it's important to acknowledge the work we do, the effort, and results gained.

I'm not one to reward low effort, even from myself, but when effort is made and results achieved its worth taking a moment to pat oneself on the back before resetting and moving on. I've gained good results from it and yeah some of the "little rewards" have been massive things like overseas holidays - rewards commensurate to the achievement - but even the little things can be a nice way to celebrate before moving on, exactly what cheesecake and coffee rewards are all about.

What you do, if anything, to reward your efforts once a favourable result has been achieved? If you want to comment please go ahead.