Achievement Unlocked

I am a real sucker for a rewards system, especially those that involve receiving stickers, badges, or some other little token of achievement. For this, I blame my time in the Girl Scouts.

I do not recall too many activities that my troop did together, I couldn’t name all of the other girls who were in my troop, nor do I remember exactly when I quit Girl Scouts. But what I do remember is the badges. There was this little booklet that had pictures of all the badges you could earn. Next to each badge was the list of things you had to accomplish to earn the badge. Nothing was more exciting to me than the possibility of earning a new badge. They were so colorful and cute and you got to sew them on your sash (or, in my case, beg my mother to sew them on my sash). The whole thing was quite the thrill. To be honest, I never really cared what I was earning the badges for, I just liked receiving them.

I have always enjoyed the sense of accomplishment that comes with earning some little reward such as these badges. As a kid when I went to the dentist or orthodontist, they would let me pick out a toy or a sticker for having a good visit. That was the freaking best! It is one of the greatest disappointments of my life that my polling places have never given out “I Voted” stickers. The stickers and the toys are of course nowhere near as valuable as actually voting or visiting the dentist, but somehow receiving the reward feels like the bigger accomplishment. All I’m saying is I wish the grown up dentist also gave out stickers; I’d be a lot happier to go if they did.

Knowing this about myself I could use it to my advantage. I could build myself a grown up rewards system: something where I get a new sticker or treat myself to something fun when I have a successful week of adulting. Like if I don’t avoid the adult tasks like calling to make a doctor’s appointment or contacting my landlord about my weird thermostat AND if I also cook myself real food and clean the apartment, then I get to watch a movie a get a fun movie snack. Except here is the problem with that: I’m a grown ass person and I get to do whatever I want with my free time, so even if I do avoid some adult tasks during the week, I’m still going to watch a movie with a fun snack if I feel like it. Plus, I like movie snacks, but they aren’t as much fun as stickers or badges and I’m not insane enough to make myself a sticker chart for being an adult.

I do feel a sense of accomplishment when I do something that needs to be done such as cleaning. Most recently I thoroughly enjoyed cleaning all the snow and salt residue off my wood floors and getting them back to the high level of shine they had when I moved in. I am happy the floors are clean, but that feeling fades as soon as I have to step outside and end up tracking more salt into the apartment. Or I will vacuum up all the little debris of life with a cat (hair, litter, more hair) only to hear him scraping around in the litter box and knowing that I need to get the vacuum out again. There is satisfaction in keeping things clean, but it is short lived.

The same applies at work. I am always glad to finish a task or to wrap up a project, especially if it was a big and stressful event. There might be a few days of basking in the glow of that achievement, but soon enough the next tasks are building up and another project or three come along and I feel like I’m back where I started. The accomplishment feeling never lasts too long. Perhaps that is just the nature of work and life as an adult.

These things combined are what make me such an addict for those little rewards systems. There are several that currently control my existence. My Fitbit is the first one that comes to mind: when I get a certain number of steps per day, I get a badge. At the end of each week I get an email telling me about my progress and any achievements. Likewise, one of the workout programs I use keeps track of the number of workouts you do. Every time I complete one in a given program, I go look at the badge tracker to see how many more workouts I have to finish before I get the badge.

The big one that really controls my life at the moment is the Dunkin app. They have their regular rewards program where you get a certain amount of points for each dollar you spend and then you can convert those points into free stuff. I love free stuff, especially coffee, so this really works for me. But, the kicker is that from time to time they run additional little challenges and if you complete the challenges, you get a special badge. Most recently there was a “Team Iced or Team Hot” challenge. Within a given time period, I think it was a week, you had to order either five hot beverages or five iced beverages and depending on which you accomplished, you received the special hot or iced badge.

I have no need to go to Dunkin five days a week for coffee. I only go into the office one day a week unless there is an event, so under normal circumstances I only get coffee from Dunkin that one day when I’m too rushed in the morning to make coffee at home. But you better believe that when I saw that I could get a badge just for buying five iced drinks in one week, I was there every day until I unlocked that achievement. As I said, I’m a real sucker for rewards programs. Dunkin successfully got four more purchases out of me than they would normally have received, all for a little digital badge that truly has no purpose or meaning.

Except for this: when I am lost in the mire of adulthood and feeling like I’m not accomplishing anything or making any kind of mark in this world, I can open my Dunkin app and see my little badges. It makes no sense at all, but that makes me feel a little bit better. I know full well that the only thing I accomplished was spending more money than necessary to drink more coffee than necessary, but damn that little badge is cute. It makes me happy that I did a thing that earned me that little reward, digital and meaningless as it is.

Sometimes it really is just the little things.