Take One Now or Wait for Two

Have you ever found yourself waiting in line, online, or for something big in your life to come down the line, and had to remind yourself that, whatever the situation, the hoped-for object would be “worth the wait”? No one likes to wait (especially when we’re young), but it’s very nearly a universal human experience that we all have to wait for something. And indeed, we can learn a lot from studying how well—or poorly—different people apply the vitally important principle of delayed gratification—that is, choosing to wait or pursue something carefully rather than always seeking after immediate rewards!

In fact, some scientists already have.

During the late 1960s and early 1970s, a psychologist from Stanford University conducted a series of studies about delayed gratification. During the study, 90 children ranging from 3–5 years of age were seated one at a time in a room, alone at a table with a plate holding a single marshmallow. Every child was given a choice to either eat one marshmallow right away or—if they waited, resisting all urges, for 15 minutes—be rewarded with two marshmallows.

This test of willpower was an experiment to see if there were correlations between the ability of deferred gratification and long-term academic achievement. In the first follow-up study, ten years later, parents described the children who were able to resist the temptation to eat a marshmallow right away, using a variety of methods to distract themselves, as being “significantly more competent.” A second follow-up study in 1990 associated the ability to delay gratification with stronger later academic achievement, including higher average SAT performance (“Stanford Marshmallow Experiment,” EconLib.org, October 5, 2007). Surprisingly, the marshmallow test proved to be a superior indicator of academic success compared to the student’s IQ.

The marshmallow test subjects were followed into their early forties and a correlation was found between the relative levels of success enjoyed by the participants and the choices they had made—in other words, the “two marshmallow” kids appeared to have had something of an “edge” in life.

Now you would hardly connect all of a person’s total success in life to just the simple act of choosing to wait for a second marshmallow—and indeed a re-creation of the study in 2018, using over 900 test subjects from a much wider variety of backgrounds, discovered a more modest correlation over time. But a connection was nevertheless indicated. And it should make perfect sense!

When you choose to delay gratification, you essentially agree to give up something now for something better in the future. This aspect of willpower, whether brought about by circumstances or nature, cannot help but be a useful characteristic—and not only for the self.

Cultivated correctly, it can be translated into a willingness to give up selfishness and grasp hold of selflessness, as well. The quality of being able to delay gratification increases our ability to help our neighbor, our co-worker, our partner, knowing that we can put off certain needs of the moment for others in their moment of need.

Choosing delayed gratification is choosing to work hard now toward a goal that resides over the horizon. Cultivating this quality can better ensure that you will do whatever job is at hand the best you can without being immediately or inordinately concerned about who will get the credit. The capacity to delay gratification can be a strong sign of maturity, of selflessness, of big-picture thinking. It infuses a person with vision to overcome obstacles and endure setbacks, all the while increasing the power of stick-to-itiveness.

In a powerful example, Jesus Christ was able to delay gratification when He was tempted in the wilderness by Satan, who offered “all the kingdoms of the world and their glory” (Matthew 4:8). Jesus had confidence that the kingdom to come would be far greater than anything in the here and now. Hebrews 11:13, one of the most inspiring verses in the New Testament, tells us that many of God’s people throughout history have followed Jesus’ example. They lived their lives and “died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them”!

If you want a clearer vision—and assurance—of what is promised for you and the rest of the world in the very near future, making delayed gratification a high priority in your life, order the eye-opening book The World Ahead: What Will It Be Like? As with all of the literature offered at Tomorrow’s World, there is no cost or obligation.