I want it all and I want it now! The danger of instant gratification
In the 1960’s a study on instant gratification was conducted by a Stanford professor, Walter Mischel. The experiment was called “The Marshmallow Experiment” which was conducted on children. During the experiment a child would be brought into a private room and a marshmallow will be placed in front of them. An offer is then made. The researcher will tell the child that he is going to leave the room for an unspecified period. If the child does not eat the marshmallow during this time, he will be rewarded with another. The researcher would then leave the room for approximately 15 minutes and observe the child’s behaviour on a television screen or one-way mirror.
In essence the decision was quite simple – one marshmallow now or two marshmallows later. As you can imagine it was very difficult for most children to restrain themselves from eating the marshmallow. Some lunged at the treat the moment the researcher left the room. Others were able to restrain themselves a bit before giving in to temptation, while only a few were able to wait out the entire period and be rewarded the second marshmallow.
The study however only proved to be valuable years later with follow-up research on the same individuals was conducted. The findings of the follow-up research indicated that those with an ability to delay gratification was more prone for success in life. For more on the experiment and the results thereof follow this link - https://jamesclear.com/delayed-gratification
From the experiment it is clear that a conflict arises in the brain. The two opposing sides can be distinguished between emotional and logical. It is then quite clear that the emotional side responds favourably when we give in to instant gratification, while the logical part of your brain will try and reason with you. Hence, when you are presented with an opportunity to have one treat now, or wait and be rewarded with another treat the emotional side will opt for having that marshmallow now. Your logical side on the other hand will reason that if you wait a bit, and be rewarded with a second marshmallow you will be in a better position since two is better than one.
The same principle applies when we set goals for ourselves in our personal lives or careers. If one is presented with an opportunity that is not in line with your goals i.e. go out with friends rather than study for that test tomorrow and react to the impulsive choice your emotional part has triumphed over the logical one.
Luckily there are strategies that we can implement in order to delay gratification. There are number of strategies available, however it is important to keep it simple. Therefore, we can improve our delayed gratification by a) setting goals, b) create an action plan, c) prioritise and d) reward yourself.
Goal setting, action plans and rewards are detailed topics which I will deal with in follow-up articles. However, the one strategy we can focus on now is how to prioritise. Staying true to my view of keeping things simple I like to refer to the Urgent Important Matrix. In short, it is a matrix divided into four quadrants namely Q1) urgent and important, Q2) not urgent but important, Q3) urgent but not important and Q4) not urgent and not important.
Urgent and important tasks should be completed immediately. Not urgent but important tasks should be planned since they are important to be completed but not urgent yet. Therefore, you have the time to plan when they should be completed and how. It is recommended that urgent but not important tasks be delegated. These items creep up on you and has to be done urgently, however the execution thereof is not important. Lastly, not urgent and not important items should be eliminated at all cost. These activities include the mindless scrolling through social media which is taking your time away from giving attention to the more important tasks.
In conclusion, a positive link has been found between delayed gratification and success. Conflict arise in the brain as the emotional and logical side battle out the possible gains from either decision. Reacting to impulsive decisions means that the emotional side has won the battle. There are however strategies that can be used in order to improve one’s delayed gratification. The most relevant strategy discussed related to prioritisation and how one can determine what is important and urgent.