Rewarding people who’ve done well is not a new concept. Rewarding yourself for a job well done is probably a slightly newer concept, but it’s no spring chicken either. Read any column, article, or book on self help, listen to any guru, and you’ll probably be told to make small changes in your life and build in a system of rewards for yourself to keep yourself motivated. (I say “probably” because not only have I not read all the self-help books out there, but I’ve actually never read any of them. But don’t let that small fact prejudice you against my generalization. Oh, and vote for me in 2008.)

So when I started my exercise routine, the trainer suggested I think about ways to make myself stick with it. Some people like to set long-term goals, she told me, while other people need lots of little goals for which they can reward themselves often. Some people like to give themselves shopping sprees or a trip to a spa while others get enough gratification out of the amount of weight they can bench press. The key, she said, is to figure out what motivates you and what would make you most likely to quit, and then try to figure out a motivator that will not only reward you but also thwart your natural inclination to quit anything that’s this time consuming, painful, and generally unpleasant.

In most circumstances I don’t need external gratification, but exercising is not most circumstances. So I’ve built up a whole set of reasons to keep at it. You couldn’t even call this a system. “System” is too singular, too clean, too rational. There’s too much implication of cause and effect. I can imagine a more systematically rewarded person planning to work out three times a week for a month and then buy herself a good book. I can imagine a more systematically rewarded person lifting five more pounds than ever before and then signing up to take a cooking class. Bully for them, I say.

My reward web is nothing like this. Sure, I’ve got more or less theoretical, more or less conventional rewards in store for myself. For example, I’m pretty sure I’ll get a buzz when I up my weights a little. I also know that I’ll enjoy it when my trainer analyses my cardio endurance and finds that I’ve improved. But these are little esoteric for me. Nothing about those experiences would keep me from skipping a brisk walk in negative temps and a frigid wind.

So today, as I thought about the route I would walk and layered socks over my long underwear and scarf over my hat but under my coat collar, I plugged myself into my iPod to listen to the podcast versions of one of my favorite NPR shows. I often miss This American Life when it’s broadcast on Saturdays, but I take the podcast version with me on my walks to ward off the deadly boredom that will surely sap my will to walk. When I’m all caught up on these episodes, an audio book or episodes of Wait Wait Don’t Tell me help to fill the time.

I also put a couple of dollars in my pocket for a hot cup of coffee from the coffee shop that’s directly in the middle of my walking route. Never mind that I make better coffee at home, or that sipping coffee will require that I move my scarf lower on my face and therefore leave more square inches of skin vulnerable to the elements. These are mere technicalities.

Absurd as it may seem, the fact that I’m walking to the coffee shop is all that stands between me and my couch-potato alter-ego. Remember, walking without having a destination translates as “pointless” in my brain no matter how much I try to reason with myself that moving is never pointless. But having a destination, a mission, immediately transforms the whole experience into a treat. I get to go out into the fresh air. I get to take time to listen to my iPod. It’s like magic.

Stop laughing. I never claimed to make sense.