APPENDIX 2
The Token Economy System
THE TOKEN ECONOMY INCENTIVE HAS BEEN SHOWN TO LEAD TO behavior change in a variety of clinical settings, including drug and alcohol addiction centers and Weight Watchers International. Even though the concept may seem overly simplistic, it is powerful enough to change drug and eating behaviors. It can also help you learn how to access different brainsets.
Creating a Rewards List
Before you begin using the token economy system, you need to establish a list of incentives toward which you can work. You do this by making a list of rewards that you would like to earn. Items on this list should be activities or indulgences that you do not allow yourself on a regular basis (they should be true rewards that you would like to have—things that are not so big that you can't really afford them but not so small that you consider them trivial). Examples that others have used include: a professional massage, a new handbag or pair of shoes, dinner at an upscale restaurant, a new article of clothing, a professional pedicure, an expensive book, a bottle of fine wine, a nice perfume or aftershave, or a new piece of sporting equipment. Your list should include four or five items.
Earning Your Rewards
Copy the chart below. At the end of most chapters in this book, you will find exercises to help you learn to access specific brainsets. In the description of each exercise, the number of tokens you can earn for completing the exercise is listed. Each time you earn a token, color in one box adjacent to the appropriate brainset. Each time you earn twenty tokens, you can exchange them for a reward from your Rewards List. If you make it a personal challenge to earn rewards, you will find that the system will actually improve your ability to enter different brainsets.
You can earn bonus tokens when you complete exercises in brainsets that are outside of your mental comfort zone (see Chapter Two to determine your mental comfort zone). Award yourself bonus tokens as follows:
- If your mental comfort zone is Connect, give yourself double tokens for exercises in Reason and Evaluate.
- If your mental comfort zone is Reason, give yourself double tokens for exercises in Absorb and Connect.
- If your mental comfort zone is Envision, give yourself double tokens for exercises in Reason and Evaluate.
- If your mental comfort zone is Absorb, give yourself double tokens for exercises in Reason and Evaluate.
- If your mental comfort zone is Transform, give yourself double tokens for exercises in Absorb and Stream.
- If your mental comfort zone is Evaluate, give yourself double tokens for exercises in Absorb, Connect, and Stream.
- If your mental comfort zone is Stream, give yourself double tokens for exercises in Reason and Evaluate.
Remember that you can print out a Token Economy chart and colorful tokens at http://ShelleyCarson.com.
Good luck with enhancing your creativity using this system!