‘Maybe there are people who can achieve incredible success overnight. I don’t know any of them, and I’m certainly not one of them’ – James Clear
Right from childhood, we have been misled to believe that success is about that one moment when everything falls together and we become great overnight.
We have heard Archimedes’ story about the Eureka moment when he entered his bathtub and in one lightening moment discovered the Archimedes’ principle. In another story, Charles Darwin, on his expedition to the Galapagos Islands, noticed the birds and came up with the Theory of Evolution.
The truth, however, is a little different than what was told to us.
It wasn’t one moment that led to the revelation of Archimedes’ principle, but it was a long journey preceding it and his endless quest of finding a solution to float ships. The pieces fell together to form a picture when he was in his tub. The pieces he had been collecting since a long time. Nor did Darwin had his eureka moment on the Galapagos Islands; as contrast to the popular belief, it actually took him years of observations, collecting thousands of specimens to meticulously reach the Theory of Evolution.
How do these stories of instant success affect us?
Many a times when we decide to change something in our life, our approach towards it is always by making drastic changes. We expect that these big steps will instantly change our life for the better. Bummer! That never happens. And most of the times, we give up. The thought process goes like, if I start writing today, I want to be the bestseller tomorrow. If I don’t become the bestseller by next week, I will stop writing soon afterwards, because it gives me no reward, so it isn’t worth my time.
Our brain only works on a reward system. But we need to actively work towards changing these instant rewards into delayed rewards, which serve a bigger purpose.
As demonstrated even scientifically, it is very important to practice delayed gratification. An experiment carried out in young kids, famously known as The Marshmallow Experiment where the kids were asked to not eat the marshmallow when left alone. And if the kids succeeded in resisting the temptation, they were promised more marshmallows. After the researcher left kids alone, some ate the candy immediately, while some tried to resist the temptation, but eventually gave in. Very few were able to not have the candy till the researcher was back.
Sounds like a normal experiment with predictable results, but the mind blowing part of it came a decade later when the same kids were followed up. To everyone’s surprise, kids who did not eat the candy when left alone were observed to perform better in multiple activities and also scored better in competitive exams.
So is it a quality that we’re born with, to not give in to immediate temptations?
No, it isn’t. The environment where we live has a huge influence on our decisions. We can train our brain to work differently, if we actively practice towards making these changes. The most effective part of our brain lies in its property of plasticity. The key however is, taking small steps. So the process has to go like, if I want to be a best seller author, I don’t have to write the best book today, or next month, or even next year for that matter. I just have to write something new every day. We can change majority of the things in our life the way we want, only if we’re consistent enough.
Practice the patience to value delayed gratifications, eureka moments always follow, only if you give it time.
Successful outcomes are never the result of a single choice. They are built up through good choices over time.
James Clear
– Sanketa Raut
Samay and Solace 