Guest guest Posted November 21, 2006 Report Share Posted November 21, 2006 The famous Stanford marshmallow studyDear Brothers and Sisters,A common question asked by parents is whenshould my child start setting goals. This question indicates acomplete lack of understanding of what a goal actually is. Goalachieving is something that is, or should, be going on everyhour of your life.Here's a story that will help me explain...In the 1960s, Psychologist Walter Mischel and his staff wantedto know to what extent the ability to delay immediategratification might influence later educational and life success.The study involved 400 four-year-olds.Each child was put in a room by themselves with a two-waymirror and filmed. On the table in the room was a marshmallow. The researcher then told each child that, "I've got to leave forabout 10 minutes. You can eat this marshmallow now if you want.Or if you wait till I get back, you can have two marshmallowswhen I get back."Some of the kids where pretty determined to wait; one childactual licked the table all round the marshmallow but avoidedthe marshmallow itself. Some could wait a few minutes only. Others gobbled it down immediately.The researchers continued to track these 400 childrenthroughout their school careers and into early adult life.The results were dramatic."Those who had deferred eating the marshmallow for 15-20minutes in order to get the bigger prize just a few minuteslater were more socially competent, personally effective, self-assertive and better able to cope with the frustrations of life.They were less likel to go to pieces, freeze, regress understress or become rattled and disorganized when pressured. Theyembraced challenges, and pursued them instead of giving up evenin the face of difficulties; they were more self-reliant andconfident, trustworthy and dependable; they took initiative andplunged into projects; More than a decade later, they couldstill delay gratification in the pursuit of their goals." (The basis of success in Life is directly proportional to the ability to sacrifice current pleasure for future gain) According to their parents' evaluations, the children who hadwaited were academically superior, could better put their ideasinto words, use and respond to reason, could concentrate better,make plans and follow through on them, were more eager to learn.This simple little marshmallow test of the ability to delaygratification has shown to be a better predictor than IQ whatfuture SAT scores will be. In fact, the kids who could waitjust 15-20 minutes scored, on average, 210 points better ontheir SATs than the "instant gratification" group.12-14 years LATER.You see, discipline is not factual knowledge... it's who youare. You can't get discipline from a book. Most of those pre-schoolers couldn't read a lick.There is a Chinese proverb that says "If you are patient in onemoment of anger, you will escape a hundred days of sorrow." In The Road Less Traveled, M. Scott Peck writes, "Discipline isthe basic set of tools we require to solve life's problems.Without discipline we can solve nothing. With only somediscipline we can solve only some problems. With totaldiscipline we can solve all problems."Good advice? You tell me.Sadly, today's society is set up to give us what we want now. We're told at every turn that we deserve more now. Take it. Don't wait. Screw patience.(Yeh Dil maange more mentality .. got it?) Does this all mean that if we don't have self-discipline by theage of four, we're doomed to a life of mediocrity and failure?Nope.At Think Right Now, we've studied this in depth.(This is where the above article was taken from the following website .. The emphasis in bold red were my own comments ...) Below is the ad for their website Do check it out .. They also have a free newsletter .. We've taken people who can't say no to anything, who aredistracted at every turn, who can't keep their minds on theirwork and helped them turn it around...To do this, our program, Setting & Achieving Goals Now! - http://www.thinkrightnow.com/audios/audiogoals.htm is amplyfilled with repatterning statements specifically designed toreverse any lack of self-discipline...Want more discipline and the big juicy rewards that gowith it? Then get on over to - http://www.thinkrightnow.com without delay. Working for God on earth does not pay much, but His Retirement plan is out of this world. Help someone have a nice day, visit www.thehungersite.com Rahul, Sponsored LinkMortgage rates near 39yr lows. $420,000 Mortgage for $1,399/mo - Calculate new house payment Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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