Strategy #4: Make your reinforcement into a game

This is a fun way to shape your own behavior. It appeals to your competitive side. The best part is you will be competing with your ideal opponent: yourself. Every time the competition gets tougher you have gotten better, so you’ll be up for the challenge.

The game theory of reinforcement.

Playing games or sports is a common form of recreation. Important to these types of activities is some way to keep score. And, if you’re talking sports, there are also statistics (stats).

Baseball is a prime example. Stats have reached an art form in this sport. There are defensive stats (e.g. defensive average, fielding average), offensive stats (e.g. batting average, home run ratio, strikeout ratio), and pitching stats (e.g. earned run average, winning percentage, opposing teams batting average). Some of the stats are just trivia. The useful stats are used by the players and coaches to adapt their training, strategy, technique, etc.

You can do the same for yourself. Make your life into a game. There are many ways you can do this. Some suggestions:

• start with only one behavior to get a feel for this strategy
• decide on a time limit for the game
• give yourself a point every time you do the behavior
• give yourself 1/2 points for making the behavior easier (Strategy #2)
• decide how many points you need to win
• decide how you will reward yourself for winning

A possible scenario.

I’ll give you a simple, made up example to get you started. Let’s say Gary wants to drink more water. His goal is to drink eight 250 ml servings during the day. Pure water is the only thing he’ll count. Not juice, not tea or coffee, only water. The time limit for the game is one week.

Since Gary currently drinks maybe two 250 ml servings of pure water, eight servings is going to be a stretch. So he sets himself up for a win during the first week. He decides that if he gets to 39 servings over the week (70% of the goal behavior) he will reward himself with a night out at the movies instead of the usual rental DVD.

Beginning Monday every time Gary drinks a full 250 ml of pure water he gives himself one (1) point. If he drinks 500 ml in one sitting he gets two (2) points. He keeps a little piece of paper in his pocket, marking the points down as he earns them. At the end of the day he puts the day’s tally on his calendar.

On Tuesday Gary brings a plastic jug with two liters of water from home (1/2 point). He also brings a plastic cup with a 250 ml measurement marked on the side to have at his desk at work (another 1/2 point). Every time he brings the jug with him he awards himself a half point.

Is he cheating? He made his game, he makes the rules. Making the behavior easier to enact is just smart. That is definitely worth some reinforcement.

By Wednesday Gary is into it. He’s earned 11.5 points. If he picks up the pace a little he’ll make it. That movie in the theater is as good as watched.

The next week he can increase the challenge (if he won last week), decrease the challenge (if he found he was too ambitious), or keep it the same (if he found it just challenging enough). He’s in control.

Feel good now, and later.

The rationale for this strategy is that reinforcement works best when it is immediate. If your goal is to earn a degree, it will take years. The behaviors needed to earn that degree (i.e. studying, writing reports, writing exams, showing up for class, etc.) are done in the moment. The reinforcement of earning the degree is far off in the future. The immediate gratification of going out for chicken wings, to put off studying, often outweighs that distant reward. It helps to have reinforcement now.

The points you give yourself bridge that gap. They are like the stats in baseball. Sometimes a player can be doing all he possibly can and his team still loses. That’s life. You can’t control results. If a player’s stats reflect the behavior necessary to win ball games what more can he do? He’s doing the best he can. His stats help him be aware of that. The wins will come.

The points you earn will do the same for you. What’s really happening is you are ensuring you do what it takes to achieve the results you want for yourself. The points provide synthetic reinforcement that works just like the real thing. Like the feeling you garner from winning a game of rock/paper/scissors. It doesn’t mean anything in the grand scheme of things but it still feels good. When you earn your made up points you will feel just as good and that is reinforcing.

You also ensure that you enjoy some tangible rewards. You may go to the movies, enjoy a spa treatment, buy a new shirt, or whatever you have decided you will do for yourself once you have earned enough points. In this way you make the benefits of the behavior real, right now.

Keep adapting to keep growing.

As soon as that behavior becomes easy to do you no longer need to reinforce yourself. It has now become a part of you. Choose a new behavior and begin again.

Once you are comfortable with this strategy you can use it for several behaviors at the same time. As long as you keep it simple enough that you know when you’re winning you can’t lose.

One of my favorite applications for the game theory of reinforcement was with my ‘daily action management’ list (a fancy name for a ‘to do’ list). Filling one out earned points. Prioritizing earned points. Completing tasks earned points. It helped me become highly effective with my time.

Look for a behavior that you believe would have a huge impact on your life if you improved it. Begin earning points for yourself in this area to see how much you can grow. When you’re comfortable with your advancement reevaluate. What’s your next priority? Improvement need never end.

Play often and have fun.