Delay Gratification

Delay Gratification

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When in college, I was saving for my dream phone and I even had a part time job to help raise the money. I had to resist the temptation of spending the savings on other activities such as shopping. The reason for doing this was because I wanted the large delayed reward rather than the immediate one.

Delay gratification is an individual’s ability to resist the temptation of enjoying an immediate reward and waiting for a large delayed reward instead. People who are unable to delay gratification end up with rewards that are less satisfactory. Usually the ability to choose a large reward over an immediate one shows an individual’s self-control.

It always tempting to enjoy the immediate reward and for one to delay gratification they must have a strategy. The first step is to make a decision about what you want. It is important to know what you expect to get by not enjoying an immediate reward. The decisions should be detailed to give a clear picture of the reward. It is also part of the strategy to know your values which is understanding why it is important for you to wait for the large reward instead of going for the smaller and immediate one.

It is also a good strategy to have a plan that will help you achieve the set goal. This makes it is easier to resist the temptation of immediate gratification instead of the delayed one. For example when trying to save a certain amount of money, having and sticking to an original plan makes it easy to achieve the set goal.

Due to temptations, one must have their priorities clearly outlined. The priorities are a constant remainder of the goal and the fact that everyone has different priorities. This enables one or at least makes it easier to delay gratification so as to enjoy their awaited long reward. Short term goals should be set to help one know they are making progress. One can reward themselves for achieving a short term goal which increases the motivation of...