On Now or Later

A long while back, a psychologist by the name of Walter Mischel conducted a study case on human behavior and specifically on the question of delayed gratification. The subjects of the study were kids presented with one tiny piece of marshmallows and asked and given the choice of whether they preferred to eat that one marshmallow immediately or wait for fifteen minutes without eating it and be rewarded with two by the end of the period.

The standard definition of delayed gratification is the ability to delay an impulse for an immediate reward to receive a more favorable compensation at a later time.

The ability to hold out now for a better reward later is an essential life skill because it helps in the building up of the capacity to be flexible and skillful in making social decisions that can be more complicated than they appear at first.

Now most of the kids in that experiment chose to eat that one marshmallow and not wait for fifteen minutes to get two instead, realistically speaking though, you would think they are just kids and it is marshmallows so it is bound to happen! but it goes deeper than that, it all goes down to the human need for instant gratification and wanting to experience pleasure or fulfillment without delay, it is that intense desire of wanting to reap the rewards of your actions now and now only. It is the complete opposite of delayed gratification which is a function of both ego control and what researchers call "ego resiliency".

Studies have shown that the ability to delay reward is present in highly successful people and indicates an attribute of high emotional intelligence of an individual who favors having delayed rather than instant gratification.

So what do you do when you are caught in the middle of trying to live your life as if there is no tomorrow but at the same time you have a future life ahead that you want to plan and prepare for? I do not have a definitive answer to that question, but what I know is that living in the present is a nice thing to do but you want to have your future-self interest at heart whenever you are trying to make a big decision in the present moment that might end up affecting it. Often, putting someone else's needs before one's own comes naturally, and if you apply the same thing but you put your future self instead, it will help put things into perspective.