Two of the biggest indicators of success in life is the ability to say no to yourself at crucial times and sacrifice your present moment fun and enjoyment for future goals and accomplishments. Self control is the path to getting what you really want out of life while following the natural path of your own emotions and impulses in almost always a well worn path down the wrong road. Most people get the most satisfaction and enjoyment from accomplishments and a job well done, not in their leisure time or on a vacation. One of the greatest enjoyments in life is working in a field you are passionate about and finding meaning for your life through the work of creating value for others through that work. A lot of the unhappiness, boredom, and purposeless that we run into is when we say yes to our self at the wrong time and close doors to alternate futures through the lack of right actions in the present moment.
Here is some proof of the power of self control and discipline:
The Stanford marshmallow experimentwas a series of studies on delayed gratification in the late 1960s and early 1970s led by psychologist Walter Mischel, then a professor at Stanford University. In these studies, a child was offered a choice between one small reward (sometimes a marshmallow, but often a cookie or a pretzel, etc.) provided immediately or two small rewards if he or she waited until the tester returned (after an absence of approximately 15 minutes). In follow-up studies, the researchers found that children who were able to wait longer for the preferred rewards tended to have better life outcomes, as measured by SAT scores, educational attainment,body mass index (BMI) and other life measures.
The purpose of the original study was to understand when the control of deferred gratification, the ability to wait to obtain something that one wants, develops in children. The original experiment took place at the Bing Nursery School located at Stanford University, using children age four to six as subjects. The children were led into a room, empty of distractions, where a treat of their choice (Oreo cookie, marshmallow, or pretzel stick) was placed on a table, by a chair.The children could eat the marshmallow, the researchers said, but if they waited for fifteen minutes without giving in to the temptation, they would be rewarded with a second marshmallow. Mischel observed as some would “cover their eyes with their hands or turn around so that they can’t see the tray, others start kicking the desk, or tug on their pigtails, or stroke the marshmallow as if it were a tiny stuffed animal”, while others would simply eat the marshmallow as soon as the researchers left.
In over 600 children who took part in the experiment, a minority ate the marshmallow immediately. Of those who attempted to delay, one third deferred gratification long enough to get the second marshmallow.Age was a major determinant of deferred gratification. FULL STORY at wikipedia
