I read a really interesting article on a psychologist who is interested in personality. There are a lot of pop psychology personality tests on the web and the underlying premise is that personality is a fixed thing. Well, this may not be quite true, personality may be different in different situations. Some features of a person's character however seem to be very important and this he says is the ability to control emotions...he carried out an experiment with children who were given marshmallows which they could either eat straight away or wait a bit and get another one. they were left in a room with the marshmallow and given a bell to ring when they could not wait any longer. Some of the children waited and got the reward while others rang the bell in almost no time. He followed these children into adulthood and found a high correlation between those who waited and those who were successful in life! Its not so much the ability to resist temptation for a longer run payoff thats important but the ability to control their desires. The successful kids did this in a variety of ways but essentially they did it by suppressing thoughts of marshmallows and distracting themselves with other things. Moreover this ability can potentially be learnt but requires diligent practice. Having the right parents can help a lot!
I've only recently become aware of this ability and it certainly rings true to me. People who are able to turn off their hot emotions are much more advantaged.
So, go on, I would say" Dont eat the marshmallow" !!
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