Immediate gratification: the death of long term success!
Have you ever heard of the marshmallow experiment? If you haven’t, here are the basics of it: children were left in a room with a marshmallow on a table. They were told that they will be alone for 5 minutes. The child was free to eat the marshmallow immediately, but if they chose to wait until the scientist returned, they would get a second marshmallow. Long term study has shown that children who were able to wait for the second marshmallow were more successful in life.
It’s been over 150 years since Abraham Lincoln was assassinated and apparently scientists had to get involved, but he had a point: life is full of choices between immediate gratification and working now for a larger payoff in the future.
Think about that the next time you consider scrolling through social media and are tempted to waste time: is this quick shot of dopamine worth compromising your long term goals?
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