How to Delay Gratification and Control Your Impulses?

One of the most valuable character traits someone might have is the capacity to hold off or delay satisfaction. This is because it enables one to pause, reflect, and genuinely determine what is in one's best interests in a certain circumstance. Delaying gratification can help you better understand impulse control, which is the process by which we prevent ourselves from acting on our immediate desires in favor of pausing and considering whether we truly want to do that. 

In this article, we will look at the advantages of delaying satisfaction, along with the advantages of learning to do so and the long-term benefits of maintaining impulse control. 

What is Delayed Gratification?

The practice of delaying your immediate need for satisfaction to satisfy it later is known as delayed gratification. The benefits of delaying satisfaction are usually greater than those of immediately giving in to temptation. Delaying gratification has been linked to success in a variety of areas of life, such as relationships, work and income, according to researchers.

Delayed VS Instant Gratification

One simple way to understand the distinctions between delayed and instant satisfaction is that the instant allows you to escape pain in the present, while the delayed one allows you to avoid pain in the future.

This "pain" may be physical, but it's also likely to be emotional, like the pain you feel when you stop forcing yourself to push through a minute more on the treadmill or when you give yourself that extra slice of pizza. Both of these scenarios involve immediate gratification like eating an extra slice of pizza or finishing your run on time. However, when you force yourself to not eat the extra slice of pizza or run an extra minute, represents delayed gratification and what will be best for you in the long run. 

The Marshmallow Test

The famous Stanford marshmallow experiment took place in 1972 at Stanford University in Palo Alto and was led by Walter Mischel. It was a study on delayed gratification. The basic idea was to give a child one small reward to take immediately or two small rewards to take a little later. Each child received information about their options and then spent 15 minutes by themselves in a room with the reward of their choice, a pretzel stick or marshmallow.

As a result, children who were able to delay gratification by refusing to eat their desired reward during the time they were left alone in the room with it were found to have a higher likelihood of having "better life outcomes, as measured by SAT scores, educational attainment, body mass index (BMI), and other life measures," according to the experiment's findings. The findings regarding the advantages of delaying gratification were only half as strong when the experiment was repeated at ten times the size and with a more varied sample population. Some have proposed that this difference was due more to economic background than to a need for increased impulse control.

Everyday Examples of Delaying Gratification

We all encounter situations of delayed gratification at some point in our lives, sometimes we recognize them right away and sometimes we don't. Here are some real-world examples of delaying gratification:

1. Deciding not to snack while preparing dinner, even though you really want to, because you know that waiting will result in a more satisfying meal.
2. If you're studying for a test and you really want to watch TV or check your phone, telling yourself that you may engage in those activities as much as you like after you've finished your studying.
3. If you have a favorite coffee shop and you enjoy a special coffee drink, telling yourself that you can only have one after working hard for the first hour or two of the day.
4. When you reenter or enter the job market, taking the rest of the day off guilt-free only after you have applied to one to three jobs that day.

Improve Your Ability to Delay Gratification

Although it can be difficult to learn impulse control and delay gratification, you will start to see results right away if you use the following tips:

Give yourself a precise timeframe: Set a deadline when you can be rewarded (e.g., eat a snack, stop exercising, check your phone, etc.) so you can work toward it when practicing your ability to delay gratification.

Reward yourself for small wins: Delaying gratification can be made easier by first rewarding yourself for not snacking while preparing dinner, even though it may not seem like something you should be rewarded for.

Make promises to yourself and never break them: Some of us struggle because when we seek instant gratification, we know exactly what we're going to get, but when we seek delayed gratification, we have to have trust that our needs will be met eventually. Therefore, never break promises to yourself.

Delaying gratification encourages a variety of positive behaviors in kids and adults that we can carry into our future. Though it might not have the same appeal or feel as instant gratification, delayed gratification will pave the way for a happy and healthy existence.