Issue 3
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The kids who waited, used several
strategies to keep themselves off the
tempting marshmallow in front of them.
What the pre-schoolers did as they tried
to keep waiting and how they did or
didn’t manage to delay gratification,
unexpectedly turned out to predict much
about their future lives. Dr. Mischel and
his associates followed up with the
children in the test and their parents, for
over 40 years; that is till the kids were
44-45 years of age.
This is what they found;
‘The more seconds they waited at age
four and five, the higher their college
admission SAT scores and the better their
social and cognitive functioning in
adolescence. At 27-32, those who waited
longer had a lower body mass index and
better sense of self worth, pursued their
goals more effectively and coped more
adaptively with frustrations and stress. At
midlife, those who consistently waited
versus those who couldn’t, were
characterised by distinctively different
brain scans in areas linked to addictions
and obesity.’ - From the book The
Marshmallow Test by Dr. Walter Mischel
JAS 2017
Albert Einstein, the genius once said; ‘It’s not
that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with the
problem longer.’ This may well be true of all
achievers through history, across fields.
J K Rowling’s first Harry Potter manuscript was
rejected by several publishers. Had she not
persisted, we may not have seen the
phenomenon in history of children’s literature
and print media. Another celebrated
children’s author Kate DiCamillo, beautifully
illustrates the importance of persistence
through her success. In one of her interviews,
Kate said; ‘I’ve been in many writing
workshops and to the right of me and to the
left of me, there’s always somebody much
more talented than I am. I decided a long
time ago that I didn’t have to be talented. I
just had to be persistent, and that was
something I could control – the persistence.’
Author of many pop psychology books,
Malcolm Gladwell has a formula for
persistence. In his book Outliers, he says that
it takes 10,000 hours to master a skill, perfect
a talent.
Many underachievers; performers,
sportspersons, artists, scientists, academics,
professionals are not short on talent, but they
fail on resolve; they give up - quit too soon, or
they give in to temptations or give in to their
emotions.
Self-control makes possible,
resisting temptations,
handling emotions,
perseverance, contro"ing the
urge to quit/ give up.
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