Photo Credit: Daily Mail
Delayed gratification is key to success in life.
In the 1970s, psychologist Walter Mischel conducted the now famous “Marshmallow Test” on a group of about 600 four year olds at the nursery school on Stanford’s campus. These kids were left in an empty room with one marshmallow (or cookie or other treat) and told that they could eat the marshmallow BUT if they waited 15 minutes until the researcher returned they would be given two marshmallows.
2 out of 3 kids ate the marshmallow. I probably would have been one of them. I mean, come on, marshmallows are awesome.
The interesting thing is what they noticed 15 years later when they checked in on those kids: they found that the kids who resisted eating the marshmallow grew up to have better SAT scores, healthier BMI, better jobs, etc. In other words, the kids who were able to delay gratification grew up to be more successful.
The researchers concluded that success is directly related to the ability to delay gratification and therefore related to how much self-discipline you have… that is to say, to be successful you need to be self-disciplined.