Posted by André Nosalsky :: December 31, 2007 @ 10:15 am

According to researchers in psychology, when a person does something that is not pleasant but receives some positive reinforcement afterwards, he will keep doing the task and go through the negative to experience the positive. This phenomenon can be seen in many areas of life. In running, it’s usually the natural high feeling from endorphins that keeps the runners coming back to running.

Many times this result occurs naturally, but often times the reinforcement has to be manufactured. For instance, you can give yourself a reward after doing something you do not enjoy. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy; it can be as simple as having a cup of coffee or tea after starting on a difficult report. This would be considered a small win and it’ll keep on reinforcing your behavior until you have accomplished your goal.

Apply this method to your Money Marathon also. An easy way to do this is to reward yourself every time you save, invest or cut costs. You can do this by contributing to your Fun Fund. When you contribute to your Fun Fund, you can imagine and plan what you will do with the funds in the future. This “day dreaming” or future planning is a small reward for taking an action that you might have otherwise put off.

The reinforcement of your small victories will serve to build up the habits and behavior that will be required to complete your bigger goals and finish the Money Marathon.

When working on your bigger goals, such as saving 10% of your income, investing a big amount of money or lending out thousands of dollars through social lending, you can set your sights on even bigger rewards, such as a weekend getaway or a big purchase you’ve been looking forward to making.

Your task is to associate the feeling of winning of with any activity that will bring you closer to winning your Money Marathon.

We at Lending Club wish you the best of luck with your Money Marathon!