I like your idea. I think far too many people beat themselves up over their ideas of how life *should* work in their minds versus how it really does. I'm talking about sentiments like, "I felt pretty ridiculous about this system (what am I, a third grader? I have to bribe myself to leave for work on time?" I certainly understand those sorts of feelings. After all, it isn't glamorous to admit that sometimes asking people to make virtue be its own reward exclusively is just really really hard. Like any behaviors, virtuous ones and not-so-virtuous ones are conditioned through repetition and activation of the reward system in the brain. The reason why your system works on third graders is precisely because of this. The reason why we often can move away from that "gold star" or "points" system when we're adults is because we've adequately conditioned ourselves into regularly engaging in the socially desirable behavior (like being potty trained for example). Once that conditioning has been set, as long as we keep those positive patterns reinforced, we can reap the natural rewards from positive actions (like getting a promotion because you're always early to work) and start valuing virtuous action for its own sake as well (as opposed to valuing for any artificial additional value you heap on). The thing is, lot of people want to rewrite their own history and give themselves credit for "good character" when chances are there was a parent or teacher who used either carrot or stick based conditioning to solidify some particular virtue. I think it takes guts to realize you need improving in certain areas and to tackle those areas in a rational and intelligent way. Kudos to you, K-Rizzles. :)