A friend of mine is in the gym - seemingly all the time. If he's asked where to buy steroids, he takes it as a compliment. When asked how does he reward himself for reaching fitness goals, he invariably asks the same question, "What do you mean?" No one appears to expect him to respond with a question - or a question like this.
His lengthy answer is distilled into two corollaries:
1) He doesn't look at working out as a punishment in the sense that he has to give himself something to keep him going.
2) He doesn't look at working out as a means to get a reward for hitting a goal.
For him, working out becomes the reward. He makes this clear by saying, "My reward is that I'm not fat." or something along those lines. And, almost as invariably as asking the first question, the next question is usually something like, "What about eating a pint of ice cream or something? Just once?"
His answer to this is much shorter: "That's like a recovering alcoholic rewarding himself with a shot of whiskey."
What I've observed about these encounters with (usually) complete strangers is that he affects all of them positively - insomuch that they get a boost of morale and encouragement to workout out a little harder, a little longer, and with a better attitude. I observe this in the various industries that I've encountered: Many people make a goal to get through the work/school day. Sometimes you need to do this because of other stress; however, see what you can do if you were to look at your work/school day as the reward and not a means to a reward. It becomes infectious and you'll probably enjoy life much more because of it.
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