The Blatant Disregard Towards Delayed Gratification

"Think of the bigger picture..." — I’ve come across this cheesy one-liner umpteen number of times. Yet, it saddens me to say that people don’t realize the valuable lesson entailed in this statement. One facet of life where we fail to see the bigger picture is when it comes to the concept of delayed gratification. Most of us, if not all, tend to favor the immediate reward and cannot wait for something later. This happens in spite of knowing that the latter, which carries greater weight, magnifies the result as compared to the former. I believe temptation is the driving factor behind most of our decisions. Feel free to throw in other aspects such as circumstances, etc. It’s just that temptation is at the center with the others acting like spokes emanating out of this hub.

Grit and resilience, among other fancy terms, are the darlings of motivational speakers and spiritual gurus. It’s worth knowing that temptation is the undercurrent behind these attributes of personality. In other words, if you can resist falling into the trap of tempting over the shorter, less significant rewards that are on offer, you’re accentuating your attitude/personality by building on those fancy words. When the wizened say that history is the best teacher, they actually mean it. If you flip through the pages of events that have occurred in the past, you’ll find that delayed gratification, or the lack thereof, was responsible for the outcome in most of the cases. Rather than me coming out with the examples, I want you to ponder over such incidents. After all, I need an excuse to have you exercise your thinking muscle before it atrophies.

I recently read an interesting answer on the topic of delayed gratification somewhere (opening twenty something tabs on Chrome at the same time is not a good idea). The person who answered was describing how his manager at the office deemed subordinates fit for promotion. The manager used to barge into the candidate’s cubicle, and raise the question, “I’ve decided to promote you to the next level immediately. But if you take the offer, you aren’t going to be considered for any other raise for a long time. If you reject the offer, I’ll surely promote you after six months with a package nearly double of what the instant upgrade has to give. What’s your call?”. If the candidate answered with a yes in a jiffy, the manager understood that such a person would be susceptible to taking the wrong decision in lieu of greed. And if the candidate asked for some time to think before making the call, he would be considered sensible and a potential contender for appraisal. So while you may not notice it, people in your vicinity are constantly judging you when it comes to giving into temptation.

Is there a panacea that eliminates the innate impulse to get your hands on whatever is on offer? I don’t think so. Certain characteristics are imbibed in us through a blueprint that homo sapiens pass over from generation to generation. These include fight-or-flight strategy and some others which could be deliberated over using books on psychology and related fields of study. Learn the art of taming your instant craving; it’s a feral animal that needs to be brought under control. Change your perspective when it comes to acting out on situations, opportunities, and challenges as they come and go like fleeting time. Think of how they would play out in the longer run. Sunday Adelaja’s quote sums it up—“After delayed gratification comes greater reward, better profit, and greater glory”.

I highly recommend you to read Alex Lickerman's post for more on the topic of delayed gratification.