I realized something on the way home from work today. Everything in my life is driven by the promise of some sort of reward. What’s interesting to me about this is that the rewards are often something not really reward-like in their nature. Also, the lack of a reward seems to dictate how enthusiastic I’d be willing to something.

A good example is my morning coffee. I dearly love my mug of coffee in the morning. I need it. But, as long as I know for certain that I can get it, I am willing to put it off, suffer a bit, and do something dumb before I can have it. I can convince myself to hold my coffee hostage until I walk or bike for a few hours. It’s strange, I know. I need this coffee. I am sub human without it, yet, I can force myself to do something painful before I let myself have it.

The converse of this is interesting. No amount of poking or prodding will make me do something for bad coffee. Walk into town for a coffee and then walk home? Please. The coffee in town is crap. I’d rather walk the whole loop in one go and have coffee at the end, the drink it in the middle and risk ruining a good stroll.

That is all.