rewards

Still thinking about the way we make life worthwhile by rewarding ourselves. We promise ourself some pleasure if we can achieve a goal.
What pleasure?  A cigarette. An alcoholic drink. Food. Sex. A holiday. An online game. A new book. The feeling that someone important to us would be impressed. A little less self-loathing. What makes the effort of living tolerable?
What goal can compensate for the depressing awareness of our personal mortality?  Nothing of itself can ever balance that sense of loss, but we can distract ourselves with rewards for success in our self-imposed tasks. A career. A relationship. Personal development. Acquisition of money or assets. Visible signs of success such as an expensive car or attractive partner. Children.
Children also provide a little consolation in that a part of us may continue past our own life span. And any of their own achievements can be claimed by our reward system.

But the real reward is only in our minds. We decide which behaviour or possession rewards us with pleasure. As we age some rewards no longer give so much satisfaction -
(I would like to say that our rewards probably become symbolic - if I achieve a certain goal I will give myself the pleasure that I once associated with a hug from my mother, an ice cream , an orgasm...this starts to resemble a Freudian-type system of ego and super-ego operating our minds but I don't want to go down that path. I want to know why we choose our rewards, our comfort, our thrills.) - 
they no longer represent our beliefs. A cigarette changes from a treat to a threat. An ice cream can damage our arteries. So what gratification do we choose to keep us going through life? What is the best choice, or, do we have a choice at all?  Perhaps our reward system is unchangeable - can a paedophile change their preferences and feel a reward in something else, or do they simply not wish to change? Is a borderline personality determined by choice or is it a biological sentence? Can I change my reward system by my own choosing and do better with my life? How do I know what is better anyway? Should we examine our motivations?


It might be interesting if we did.