You see a lot of people talking about the term

Delayed Gratification

Let me explain WHY it is so important for your life

(thread)

In the 1960’s, a man named Walter Mischel conducted one of most famous study that has been talked about many, many times

What was that study?

The Marshmallow Study

The Marshmallow Study consisted of brining in children aged 4-5 years old into a room, one by one

In that room, they were seated at a table

And on table, there was a marshmallow on the in front of them

The researcher then told the child:

“I am going to leave the room, if the marshmallow is here when I get back, you’ll get another!

If you eat the marshmallow before I get back, you won’t get another!”

Seems like a simple task and a silly study, doesn’t it?

Here were the choices:

ONE marshmallow now

OR

TWO marshmallows later

...

The outcome?

Some children ate the one marshmallow right away

Some waited for a few minutes, but couldn’t resist

And others waited the entire time and had TWO marshmallows

So what does this study teach us about delayed gratification?

The researchers followed the children for many years after the experiment...

Here is what they found

The children that delayed the gratification of the marshmallow had:

Better SAT scores

Lower levels of substance abuse

Lower likelihood of obesity

Better responses to stress

And many more factors in which they scored better

But wait, there’s more

AFTER 40 YEARS of following these children, researchers found that the group who waited for the second marshmallow succeeded in whichever capacity that was measured

This study proved:

“THE ABILITY TO DELAY GRATIFICATION IS CRITICAL FOR SUCCESS IN LIFE”

So how does this work with investing?

Look at it like this:

You receive your paycheck

With your you can either spend it on

OR

You can invest it and DELAY GRATIFICATION and turn into

In an instant gratification world, many people do this



And with delayed gratification, it looks like this



Being able to DELAY so that your money now, can be worth a lot more in the future

Another way to look at it?

If you see your 9-5 paycheck as ONE marshmallow,

And someone tells you “If you wait 15 years, that ONE marshmallow will be worth way more!”

Are you going to buy that

OR are you going to DELAY GRATIFICATION and invest?

The choice is YOURS

I hope this thread shed some light on the background of DELAYED GRATIFICATION

And you were able to see the importance of doing so!

Thanks for reading and I appreciate you being here

@DecadeInvestor