Accomplishment is its Own Reward

Everyone likes a good reward. A job well done associates with a good reward. The mouse gets the cheese at the end of a maze. A dog receives a treat for learning how to "shake". An adult gets paid extra for overtime hours. Sooner or later, are these accomplishments being done only for the sake of the reward?

Now, think of a child. Perhaps, a student in the first grade. When he or she finishes the coloring assignment entirely "inside the lines," he or she will most likely walk up to the teacher to show off the artwork proudly. "Wow!" the teacher says, "You did a really good job on that picture!" The child takes the approval to the heart, and will most likely color another picture just as well, if not better, just for the sake of finishing another "really good job."

Arnold Gesell talks of this in his book The Child from Five to Ten**. Children "like to be instructed, not so much to please their elders as to feel the satisfactions of achievement and social acceptance. They are eager to know how to do things." With this he is saying that a child does things for his own personal benefit. Although approval is understood from their elders, children are not acting for the approval alone. They want to do well and learn.

Maybe we, adults and teenagers alike, could learn something from children. We need to do a job well done for our own benefit, for our own success, not for some outside recognition or reward. A sense of accomplishment should be its own reward. We shouldn't need articles in the paper, or monetary rewards, or even trophies and medals. Do the work for work's sake. Be like a child, and appreciate your own achievement.

**Gesell, Arnold, M.D., Frances L. Ilg, M.D., and Louise Bates Ames, Ph.D. The Child from Five to Ten. rev. ed. New York City, New York. Harper & Row, Publishers. 1977.