We munched our way around the fundraiser. Over the top grilled prawns, craft beers and a splash of elegant, gourmet, energetic offerings from our community businesses primed us for supporting our local non-profits.

We sipped, perused and cheerfully gave up our contact information booth by booth.

In one aphotic corner a young man stood behind his designated table and with the party well underway his sign-up sheet had only two contacts. After suggesting that he might angle his table a few feet for better exposure to the gregarious crowd he said “I don’t know if they pay me enough to work that hard.”

Guess he missed the memo: This is not work. This is a game. This is the collecting names game!

Corporate work environments are becoming venues for health games. Focus on peer competition and extrinsic rewards such as cars, dinners, hotel stays, etc. may get this personal health engagement movement off the ground. Will the extrinsic focus deliver lasting individual improvements?

Extrinsic rewards are weak in comparison to innovative personal tools and practices that help us build health and resilience from the inside out.

Extrinsic:

“I won a 3 night stay at a hotel for out walking everyone on my team!”

Intrinsic:

“ I feel great and am making big strides towards better fitness. I am doing it with a new company program, a fitness game. Amazingly for my self-improvement effort, I received a three night hotel stay… nice bonus.”

I like the tip from Mayor Mike Caldwell of Ogden Utah … he calendars his mountain biking, running, hiking and fitness time as a meeting.

Now, I am off to my yoga class…I mean “meeting”.

The rewards are plenty.