Delayed Gratification and Success

25/04/2021

A psychological experiment was conducted on children who were under seven years of age. They were put in a room and one marshmallow was given to every child and all of them were given some instructions that if they would wait for fifteen minutes and not eat the marshmallow given to them; they’ll get another one as a reward. After fifteen minutes, it was seen that almost eighty percent of the children could not wait for fifteen minutes and they ate the marshmallow up.

On the other hand, there were a few children who controlled themselves and did not eat the marshmallow instead they preferred waiting for the fifteen minutes and achieve another one as a reward. These children were later observed after almost fifteen years. Those who could control themselves in the experiment were the ones who were living a successful life in terms of their grades, extracurricular activities, and relations with other people; psychologists termed their attitude as “Delayed Gratification” that such people tend to sacrifice the short term pleasures over long term happiness also, such people are more disciplined and persistent.

Those who could not control themselves always relied upon “Instant Gratification”.They always opted for temporary pleasures and did not think about the consequences of their steps. Such people turned out to be less responsible and less persistent.

The concept of “Instant Gratification” and “Delayed Gratification” is deeply associated with the comfort zone which people develop around themselves on their own. People living in their comfort zone do not go for challenges and try new and more rather, they tend to spend their lives while trying to fulfill their instant pleasures without thinking about the future consequences. Such people usually do not go far because of the boundaries that they draw around themselves. Breaking the boundaries of the comfort zone is a remarkable and hard thing to do. Only those people who have the tendency of delaying the gratification can achieve bigger because they can risk bigger and think bigger!