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Is Self Discipline important ?

I recently can across these facts that I want to share with you today.

Michael Mischel, a psychology researcher at Stanford University has demonstrated how important self-discipline (the ability to delay immediate gratification in exchange for long term goal achievement) is to lifelong success? In a longitudinal study which began in the 1960s, he offered hungry 4-year-olds a marshmallow, but told them that if they could wait for him, to return after running an errand, they could have two marshmallows.

Those who could wait the fifteen or twenty minutes for Micheal to return would be demonstrating the ability to delay gratification and control impulse.
About one-third of of the children grabbed the single marshmallow immediately while some waited a little longer, and about one-third were able to wait 15 or 20 minutes for Michael to return.

Years later when the children graduated from high school, the differences between the two groups were dramatic: the resisters were more positive, self-motivating, persistent in the face of difficulties, and able to delay gratification in pursuit of their goals. They had the habits of successful people which resulted in more successful marriages, higher incomes, greater career satisfaction, better health, and more fulfilling lives than most of the population.
Those having grabbed the marshmallow were more troubled, stubborn and indecisive, mistrustful, less self-confident, and still could not put off gratification. They had trouble subordinating immediate impulses to achieve long-range goals. When it was time to hit the books for the big test, they tended to get distracted into doing activities that brought instant gratification This impulse and lack of self-discipline followed them throughout their lives and resulted in sunch things unsuccessful marriages, low job satisfaction and income, bad health, and frustrating lives.

So how about you does this ring true for you or perhaps someone you know and love.

Feel free to share with us your experiences and feelings on this.

Chris

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 16th, 2008 at 10:14 pm and is filed under Personal Development, Self Help. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.