What is work for want?
A lot of people in today’s world get what they want without doing direct work for it, not to say that you aren’t doing work but let’s say you want something in that specific moment and you have the capability to obtain it then you most likely will obtain it.
The concept of work for your want is when you want something rather than obtaining it immediately set a goal for yourself, I need to work on Calculus homework for x hours before I can obtain the thing I really really want.
Doing this will help you improve as you are setting up a mini goal you have to achieve which you will be more incentivized to complete as the reward in the end makes it worth it. It also makes the reward more satisfying to obtain
Example
If I really want ice cream, rather than just buying it I decide to do 100 pushups before I buy it. I will keep thinking about that ice cream all day doing the pushups and maybe at one point I will realize that I don’t really want the ice cream which is good as ice cream isn’t the best for your health.
Alternatively, I will do the 100 pushups and in the end when I eat the ice cream, the ice cream will taste that much better. I will also being counteracting the effect of the ice cream on my health. It would also be another step towards my goal of being physically active in the gym.