Delayed gratification
Monday, January 10, 2011 at 02:56AM I don't know if you've seen that experiment they've done with young children, filming them being offered a sweet, and being told that if they wait ten minutes with the sweet in front of them without eating it they will be given a second sweet?
Apparently they then tracked these children, and the ones who could wait to get the double reward, resisting the immediate one, performed much better in school throughout their school career than the ones who couldn't wait.
They believe the ability to delay gratification is a measure of a child's intelligence.
I was thinking that my early morning run is a similar type of experiment.
The temptation of an extra fifteen to thirty minutes in bed most mornings is a constant temptation, especially these dark cold mornings. And yet, forcing myself to resist the temptation of the duvet to hit the pavement (day 375 today) always gives me at least double the reward that the extra time in bed would provide.
Does that make me intelligent or am I just a slightly disturbed masochist?