Stanford University psychology researcher Michael Mischel demonstrated how important self-discipline (the ability to delay immediate gratification in exchange for long term goal achievement) is to lifelong success? In a longitudinal study which began in the 1960s, he offered hungry 4-year olds a marshmallow, but told them that if they could wait for the experimenter to return after running an errand, they could have two marshmallows.
Those who could wait the fifteen or twenty minutes for the experimenter to return would be demonstrating the ability to delay gratification and control impulse.
About one-third of the children grabbed the single marshmallow right away while some waited a little longer, and about one-third were able to wait 15 or 20 minutes for the researcher to return.
Years later when the children graduated from high school, the differences between the two groups were dramatic: the resisters were more positive, self-motivating, persistent in the face of difficulties, and able to delay gratification in pursuit of their goals. They had the habits of successful people which resulted in more successful marriages, high incomes, greater career satisfaction, better health, and more fulfilling lives than most of the population.
Those having grabbed the marshmallow were more troubled, stubborn and indecisive, mistrustful, less self-confident, and still could not put off gratification. They had trouble subordinating immediate impulses to achieve long-range goals. When it was time to study for the big test, they tended to get distracted into doing activities that brought instant gratification. This impulse followed them throughout their lives and resulted in unsuccessful marriages, low job satisfaction AND income, bad health, and frustrating lives.
~~I Brandon WROTE:
My thoughts. First off this is what God is all about, this is what Jesus is all about.. Delayed gratification takes faith, which is believing in what you are hoping for in return and it also takes discipline to wait and wisdom to know why your waiting. You have to focus on your prize, have faith that it will be there if you wait or work for it, actually make the choices to wait and or work for it ,and have the wisdom to know what is baited and understand why you waiting.
I know this is hard. It always is. The lie is that the future may never come so you need to take what you can now. God is trying to tell us to wait and we will expereince more joy by doing so. Sometimes God puts something or someone in our lives and out of fear of loosing it we take it for all its worth now instead of investing into the future. We will keep repeating and never experiencing our deepest desires until we learn to be patient and or fight for what we want.
When God gives us the chance to step into our deepest desires and dreams, we have to choose if we are willing to do the hard work or are we more interested in the immediate and the temporary comfort of whats available to us now. Many say I do this and live with out regrets, but to live with out regrets would be to live and know you walked into your destiny and didnt constantly take the bait.. We have choose to have the dicipline to walk into our destiny and dreams. I look back and I realize many times God has given me a choice.. I choose to take the immediate versus patiently fighting the urge to settle for the short lived immediate reward. All to often I have choosen wrong. No wonder.
God wants to give us the desires of our hearts.. We choose if we want 1 marshmellow or 2. If you want 2, God is more than willing to show you the way. You cannot force open your destiny any more than you can a budding rose with out destroying it. God plants the flowers, we have to patiently take care of and protect them.
Trust God
~~Brandon.
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Discipline
Discipline is the executing, the making it happen, the sacrifice entailed in doing whatever it takes to realize that vision. Discipline is willpower embodied.
The opposite of discipline and the commitment that inspires sacrifice is indulgence – sacrificing what matters most in life for the pleasure or thrill of the moment.
Only the disciplined are truly free. The undisciplined are slaves to moods, appetites, and passions.
The successful person has "formed the habit of doing things that failures don't like to do." Successful people don't like doing them either, necessarily, but their dislike is subordinated by the strength of their purpose.
Choice
We are free to choose. Next to life itself, the power to choose is your greatest gift. The power and freedom stand in stark contrast to the mindset of victimism and culture of blame so prevalent in society today. The essence of being human is being able to direct your own life. Humans act, animals and human "robots" react.
This power of choice means that we are not merely a product of our past or of our genes; we are not a product of how other people treat us. They unquestionably influence us, but they do not determine us. We are self-determining through our choices. If we have given away our present to the past, do we need to give away our future also?
Communication
Should I do it? (That is a value question.) Do I want to do it? (That is a motivation question.) Can I do it? (That is a competency question.) Do not confuse the three questions. Don't try to answer a value question with a training answer, a motivation question with a value answer, or a competency question with a motivation answer.
Habit
"I am your constant companion. I am your greatest helper or heaviest burden. I will push you onward or drag you down to failure. I am completely at your command. Half the things you do you might just as well turn over to me, and I will be able to do them quickly, correctly. I am easily managed – you must merely be firm with me. Show me exactly how you want something done, and after a few lessons I will do it automatically. I am the servant or all great people; and alas, of all failures as well. Those who are failures, I have made failures. I am not a machine, though I work with all the precision of a machine plus the intelligence of a human being. You may run me for a profit or turn me for ruin – it makes no difference to me. Take me, train me, be firm with me, and I will place the world at your feet. Be easy with me and I will destroy you. Who am I? I am habit."