Real Estate Investor Magazine South Africa March 2014 | Page 58

INSIGHTS

BY JOHN DEMARTINI

What do you truly value?
The merits of long-term gratification in building an abundant and fulfilling life

M

any wise leaders over the centuries
believed that impatience, or the
impulsive desire for immediate
gratification, cost many people their financial
fortunes, degrees of fulfillment, and even their
lives; while the virtues of reason, patience, longterm planning and a vision helped them flourish
and rewarded them with many life enhancing
dividends. You may ask what underlies or
determines this difference between the short
and long-term thinkers, or possibly between
the immediate gratifying gamblers and the
long-term investors? This answer demands a
deeper look at the basics of human behavior;
and particularly the motivations, inspirations
or drives behind all human thought and action.
According to the Stanford Universit y’s
marshmallow experiment conducted forty
years ago and referring to a series of studies
on deferred gratification led by psychologist
Walter Mischel, children who were offered
a choice bet ween one sma l l rewa rd (a
marshmallow, cookie, or pretzel) provided
immediately, or two small rewards if they
waited until the experimenter returned about
fifteen minutes later, showed that those with
deferred gratification or patience faired better.
In follow-up studies, the researchers found that
the children who were able to wait longer for
the preferred reward tended to have greater life
outcomes, as measured by a series and variety of
life measures.
Adult