Goals and Rewards

I have a problem with goals.

Oh, not the setting of them.  I have become quite good at that part of it.  I can whip up a set of goals for a day, a week, or a year within the course of an hour.  I can even come up with a tracking metric.  The problem is that I have a very difficult time maintaining the fire to accomplish those goals over a long period of time.

I guess the thing I always believed about goals was there was a linear progression: set goal, accomplish goal, get reward, move on.  What I have found is that the end points of goals, even if clearly defined, often hardly amount to a single actual output at all.  Work tasks completed simply mean there are other tasks to be completed, not that there are riches or rewards at the end of it.  And often personal accomplishments are the same:  the books I complete, while being a significant investment of time and energy, hardly result in the influencing of almost anyone or acting as a ticket out of what I do know.

Is it that I define the goal ineffectively?  Or is it that I do not tie it specifically to a reward?

This is the why and result question:  why am I doing what I am doing?  And what do I expect to get out of it - not just the finishing of another task, but the actual outcome:  an item?  A certificate?  A promotion?  Or something checked off on my list to my larger goals?

This is where a "visual inspiration" page in a planner would be useful with pictures of what one is actually working towards or what one wants to achieve?  If I want to live at The Ranch, why is there not a picture there?  If I want a new katana or naginata, where is that picture - and where is my commitment to buy it once I complete that goal?

Because I think this is the part I am missing.  If I could tie my successes to accomplishing my goals - not just the intellectual exercise but the actual physical or emotional accomplishments of those goals - I suspect my incentive to achieve would not be an issue.

In fact, I think I would be about goals and accomplishing things all the time.