Gratify thyself

There was an experiment conducted several years ago that went something like this:

A group of kids were each left alone with 3 candies and told that if they were able to restrain themselves from eating the candies for 5 minutes, they would be given an additional 2. Something along those lines. The kids were then further divided into two categories; those who ate the candies as soon as they were alone, and those who waited.

The kids were then tracked for the next 15 years or so and the results showed that the kids who showed restraint grew up to be fairly successful while the kids in the other group achieved much lesser.

What does this experiment show? The wisdom of delayed gratification, I guess. Instant gratification has always been associated with immaturity and a certain childish lack of foresight.

One would think that as a person ages, maturity comes naturally and with maturity, self-control. Sometimes we see people making the same mistakes over and over again almost as if experience and age did nothing to curb their incessant need for instant gratification. Positive change begins with reflection and leads to realization. Where there's realization that some things are not going the way they should, steps can be taken to perhaps gently steer the ship back on course.

Maturity's the result of a conscious effort of taking many small steps in the right direction.

Delayed gratification flies in the face of the maxim that life's short, carpe diem, live for the day. But as Jianming the Wise once responded, "life's not that short, d00d." Haha, what's the point of all these? It means ... do your work, Shaun.