Welcome back. If you are just tuning in, I hope you have taken the prerequisite for this course, Seasoning Your Approach 101. If not, you will need to catch up. Take a look and read here if you haven’t already https://timelessthoughtsonline.wordpress.com/2020/03/30/life-series-seasoning-your-approach-101/.
Topic Of The Day
Moving on, today we are looking at delayed gratification and its importance in becoming successful. You may have been told in the past that delaying something is bad for you. You may have been told you should act in the moment, and think only in the present. Well, I am here to tell you that’s a load of rubbish (standard abbreviation for false information) and how delaying at times is required. To become successful we have to put off certain things (Ha, like paying back my student loans).
We need to understand that gaining success is not just a smooth transition. It is not as simple as just working hard for a while and eventually, you will wake up and be prosperous (Unless you are Neo from the Matrix). If it were that simple… half of us would still be in same situation we are today (Ha, let us be real now).
Achieving greatness is a difficult process. Along with time, you need patience, a high work rate, and dedication, just to name a few. Mentally and physically, we have to understand that this is what is needed to be exceptional. It can be threatening, but we have to take it by the balls (figuratively, I am not encouraging foul play) and run with it. It may sound difficult at first. But if you have the sauce (BBQ over everything) and can learn how to delay your gratification, the road to riches is attainable. Join me on this pilgrimage and let us see what we can gain from it together. I will walk in front, and you follow. Ready?
Self-Discipline
In a world where technology is a global superpower, patience and restraint have become a lost art. You can find just about any information online in a matter of seconds. We all want things in the now rather than wait and work for it in the future. It is understandable, but we need to learn where to draw the line and hold ourselves accountable. That’s where we learn our first component for today – self-discipline.
Self-discipline is holding yourself responsible. It is arriving at work on time. It is looking after yourself physically and mentally. It is skipping your 8:30 am lecture once a week (we all did it, do not try and lie) to sleep in. This is where we hold ourselves to a standard and how we want to conduct our attitudes and behaviors. This is a skill that can be improved upon over time but is the foundation of delayed gratification. Why you ask? Because I said so, that’s why, so take my word for it (the actual answer is below, continue reading, thank you).
Self-discipline keeps you in check allowing you to control your emotions. It helps you overcome temptation and power through situations. An example of this is the classic “panic buy” that many of us have experienced. You walk into a store, you see something that catches your eye and you wonder if you should add it to your collection of stuff. You know you do not need it and you can easily live without it, but you think “why not let it fly?” (Shoutout Chris Smoove). Out of panic, you now spend your money and purchase this item. A week later, you have already misplaced the item or do not use it as much as you think you would. Eventually, these panic buys can turn into full blow Amazon shopping sprees, where the credit card is now not looking as healthy as it once did.
See, self-discipline counteracts that whole situation right there. It allows you to bypass the temptations, keeping you grounded. You maintain your focus and ultimately it just becomes a part of you. Build up your actions and reactions and you will see the growth. Don’t get it twisted it though, treat yourself once in a while. But control the impulses and learn to have self-control as this is a key step to delaying gratification and claiming what is yours.
Learning The Value of A Dollar
Understanding the value of a dollar is essential to the work/value relationship. And I am not talking about the value of a dollar in the currency aspect (although Canada’s is pretty disappointing).
Valuing every dollar you earn teaches you important skills such as hard work, determination, and perseverance. Students like myself often work paycheck to paycheck. The grind is not easy but the payoff (usually) is worth the wait. I know I am not the only that has a smile on their face when payday is just around the corner. It is a nice feeling. A feeling you want often, but the best thing to take from this is consistency.
Consistency can be a good or bad thing. If you consistently promote a negative attitude, you will be a pessimist. If you consistently skip leg day, your legs will not grow (I am a victim of this). If you consistently think that Cristiano Ronaldo is better than Lionel Messi than you have no idea what you are talking about and should refrain from talking about football. But in all seriousness, you get out what you put in. Consistency and habits go hand in hand. Delayed gratification will force you to be consistent in the good that you do. You will not get results straight away. But if you fall or stop, how can you expect to get to your end goal? Let us not give up so easily. Try a different approach, be consistent in your actions and watch the results start coming coming your way.
A Universal Example
While I was browsing for an example that everyone could have some relation to, I came across Dwayne Johnson. The formidable specimen in the figure above is nicknamed “The Rock” cause well you know, look at him. But once I saw him I knew instantly how I could relate delayed gratification to a life example — working out.
Whether you go to the gym, exercise at home or outside in the park, you have an end goal in mind. You are trying to improve yourself and you are working towards the objective you have set out. But it is not going to come overnight. If you can only do 5 pushups in 30 seconds today, you will not be able to do 50 pushups in 30 seconds tomorrow. Although that would be pretty fantastic, it is not that simple. You have to grow the building blocks and increase the frequency of what you are doing accordingly.
Over time, endurance and strength will increase as long as you are taking the right steps. Exercising shows us that if we work hard, stay consistent and discipline ourselves, we can earn how we want to look. We can feel how we want to feel. You work out more often and feel improved over time rather than just in one session. Gratification after a period of hard work and resiliency sounds good to me. I hope it does for you also.
Forget about other people, do not try to look like the Rock (trust me I have tried), just work on yourself. If you want to improve, make it happen. If you have an idea of what or who you want to be five years from now, take the necessary steps you need to complete that. It is a grind but when you can resist the temptation of wanting results straight away, you can acquire a greater reward in the future.
Something To Take Away
You look back on your journey and see the growth, the improvements you have made so far. It feels great right? Leaves you fulfilled? Cause I know that is how you feel when you read one of my articles (ha, sometimes) but delayed gratification has that impact also.
Continue on this path and work towards delayed gratification. Delay the temptations, prioritize and plan accordingly to your ambitions. Once you reach that goal, it is time to rejoice, to celebrate, to be happy for what you have accomplished. But briefly. Once you taste success, you have to go after more. Do not stay in the moment, but create many more. It will go soon after if you do not continue to outwork yourself. And that’s why delayed gratification is vital. There’s always more to achieve. It does not let you stop, you can always improve and surpass where you are at.
Take the small victories, stay consistent and maintain your self-discipline. Thanks for reading and taking this course with me, share and comment on what you thought of the article. I leave you with a question. Reply with your answer.
“If you were not afraid to fail, what would you try today?”
#NoProcrastination
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