hmmmm, I put in effort not to be recognized but it's because I want to, because it comes from within me, not because of some external recognition from someone else. Recognition is nice but sometimes it just comes in a comment "thanks for a job well done".

Do we really need external award recognition to motivate our excelling in what we do or do we do it because it's what we just naturally do?

Had this conversation with my ex-H in the past about the amount of work I put into an easy class in college. I put in extra work to learn as much as I possibly can. A good grade is usually a byproduct of that & there aren't a limited number of good grades like there are awards but his philosophy was to always just get by with the least amount of work he had to do in order to just get by. That philosophy showed up not only in school but in his whole life & it wasn't a very endearing quality in his life. It looked in reality that he just didn't care & was lazy. While excelling & putting 100% never got me any awards, it got me internal satisfaction of knowing I have put my best into the things I do in life.

I may not get awards but people know they can depend on me to get a job done well & can call on me & trust that I will give them 100-200% in anything they ask me to do.

The internal award for me of knowing that I have done the best job I can is the best award we can give ourselves. Any other awards are like "icing on the cake"....nice but not necessary in my feeling of accomplishment.

I also found out early on in my life is that there will ALWAYS be someone else who is better at something than I am & I think that recognizing their higher talent doesn't negate mine but it's nice to give them recognition for what they excell in & not just look at me & want recognition for my level of accomplishment....nothing is ALL ABOUT ME.