Delaying Gratification

Ninetales

Ninetales

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    • Age 24
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    • Seen May 10, 2025
    In one of my psychology classes we were discussing how delaying gratification can lead to overall life success.

    Thus, my question is: Are you good at delaying gratification? Or do you easily give into temptation?

    For instance, if your friends are pestering you to go out with them but you have a midterm the following day and need to study, do you delay gratification and study? Or do you cave and go out?
     
    "sorry my future depends on this exam and i can go out literally any other day but just not this day lol"

    pretty easy for me to delay gratification for long-term success if necessary.
     
    I try to delay gratification because if I didn't I would bankrupt myself in no short order, but honestly I think life punishes you enough as it is that you should take the opportunity to treat yourself whenever it presents itself. Life is a journey and not a destination, and success isn't worth it if you're miserable all the time. I'd rather be slightly less successful than I could be if the cost is slightly more contentment than I would otherwise have. After all, there's no guarantee you'll live to see the moment you're supposed to be rewarding yourself.
     
    How can you talk about delayed gratification and not mention marshmallow experiment?

    Anyway, to answer the question, I think I have pretty good self-control and impulse control. But it usually comes down to whatever I should buy certain game/book or not, rather that going out. But I can proudly say that my game and book library aren't growing super fast this year and I can actually go through my already big backlog.
     
    Janp said:
    How can you talk about delayed gratification and not mention marshmallow experiment?
    Click to expand...

    I was actually going to mention the marshmallow experiment!

    For those of you who don't know, an experiment with young children was conducted on the topic of delaying gratification. Essentially, children (between the ages of 3-6, I want to say) were given one single marshmallow. They were given two options:

    1. The first option was to eat it now
    2. And the second option was to wait and receive a second marshmallow.

    Furthermore, if one ate the first marshmallow immediately they would not receive a second. They only would receive the second marshmallow if the first one remained when the second one was presented. So it was a test to see who could delay gratification in order to obtain the two marshmallows and who would indulge in the first one right away.

    Anyways the video is adorable and I'll have to link it once I'm not on mobile.
     
    I'm decent at delaying gratification but not an expert by any means. I can tell myself to finish my homework before I drink some cider or have some ice cream for example.
     
    Homework? Practice? Well you see *sees a laptop in the distance* Uh, if you'll excuse me? *binges on youtube videos*

    I suck at it needless to say. But I think today, I saw a light in this disappointment I see in myself. I actually buckled down the last two days and focused on my comic before hanging with friends. Hey, it's not future pending but it's a start.
     
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