The Marshmallow Test
A four-year-old child is sitting in a room looking at a marshmallow.
A man has just left the room.
He has told the four-year-old they have a choice, eat the marshmallow now or wait until he comes back and get a second marshmallow.
This may seem a bit unfair on a four-year-old child.
It’s easy to imagine the four-year-old eating the marshmallow and not wanting to wait.
This test was conducted in the 1960s. And as you can imagine, many four-year-olds ate the marshmallow.
But others did not. Some waited a short while and were rewarded with a second marshmallow.
This experiment was conducted in Columbia University by a professor, Walter Mischel. What he discovered was that some children could delay gratification.
Having the discipline to wait is an important personality trait. It has often been linked to success in later life.
Indeed, Professor Mischel followed up this test many years later. He found the children who could delay gratification were more successful in life in comparison to than those who had eaten the marshmallow straight away.
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How do you think you would have responded if you faced the marshmallow test?
I’m sure we would all like to think that we would have waited but … As business owners, we all face our own marshmallow tests every day.
You are working on an important job and you hear the ping of an incoming email.
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What do you do? Eat the marshmallow (check your email) or wait?
You may be working on a new product and the phone rings.
Do you rush to pick it up? (maybe another marshmallow moment)
?Two key characteristics of successful people are:
1.??????? They know how to prioritise.
2.??????? They have discipline to stick to that important job until it’s done (no marshmallows here).
The next time you are tempted by an email, phone or prospect of going online… Why not think of that four-year-old child and WAIT.
?Even though the study seemed a bit cruel, the four-year-old child who could delay gratification (eat the marshmallow), got a reward. The same applies to us in life.
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Community Pharmacist, Family run, Caring for the Dublin Community for almost 70 years.
2 个月I love this example Neil. I will remember this next time I am engrossed in something and distractions are coming in my direction.
High-Performance Coach @ John Tiernan | Emotional Intelligence
2 个月Great Post Neil. ????