Concept 3: Delay of Gratification

Delay of Gratification is the ability of a person to wait for what he/she really wants in life.

A study performed by Walter Mischel in Stanford University involved 4-year-old kids and their ability to get what they really really want: marshmallows.

So basically, each kid was put in a room, with 1 marshmallow. They can eat it right away, or if they wait for 20 minutes, they would be given another one. Here’s the clip:

The university keep track on these kids later on in life and found out that

– Kids who ate the marshmallow look at short term orientation, often moody, envious & jealous, indecisive and more likely to use drugs.

– Kids who waited for the second one turned out to be long term oriented, works well under pressure, scored 250 points higher on SAT, success in school, self reliant and confident.

The ones who has the ability to delay gratification are the ones who can manage self discipline well.