I Give Myself Gold Stars
I don’t know if teachers still do this, but when I was little, having a gold star sticker next to your name was an accomplishment to be proud of. This could be an assessment test or, more often, some kind of chart hanging in front of the class. You had to earn that gold star.
But now that I’m an adult, no one recognizes my stupid little achievements. Have I flossed every night this week? Who cares? Well, I care. And I give myself a gold star.
I’m not kidding. You can buy these little gold stars on Amazon. They are ½ inch in size and have a holographic glitter pattern. You get 1,200 of them for less than five dollars. Or bring back even more memories with ⅜-inch colorful emojis : the pack includes 12,000 emojis plus a few gold stars (for those extra special moments). To find more similar stickers, search for “schedule stickers” or “reward stickers.”
How I Use My Precious Gold Star Stickers
And yes, I do use them to motivate myself to floss. After a visit to the dentist earlier this year, I decided that I would make the transition from someone who almost never flosses (sorry, ugh) to someone who flosses sometimes . But I knew I would need help to stick to the plan for the full six months before my next appointment. I taped a piece of notepad to the inside of my bathroom cabinet and aimed for at least two gold stars every week.
When I returned, my hygienist was not impressed. My teeth still weren’t as clean as they could be. (When I told her about it, however, she liked the gold star idea.) Can I make sure I brush my teeth twice and floss every day? You know what I had to do: I started a new schedule.
Gold stars aren’t just for flossing
Why did I even have gold stars on hand? They came from a package similar to the smiley face I showed above. I bought these for my little daughter who wanted to be able to remember if she fed her pet fish every day. After she threw the pellets, she put a sticker on each day of her Baby Yoda calendar. (Eventually she remembered well enough on her own that she stopped using the stickers and I inherited the remaining 11,000+.)
You’ll notice that I switched back to colored stickers for my flossing chart. That’s because I gave the remaining gold star leaf to my teenage son, whose doctor asked him to be as consistent as possible with certain habits (drinking water, eating breakfast, taking certain supplements) as a first step in solving a health problem. He is now filling out his own gold star chart and I am so proud of it.