The Epidemic of Instant Gratification

Goals are sadly going out of style.

Life has a funny way of burying the important stuff. As a society, we have become really good at “forgetting.” But in reality, we don’t ever really forget (thanks subconscious) but merely choose to consciously think of what seems most important at the time. This could be considered the first catalyst for the instant gratification epidemic. Plaguing it’s way into almost every mental makeup of every human being in an attempt to inject the word NOW.. NOW.. NOW.. into our minds. I wanted to get the answers to a few questions regarding the detriment of instant gratification.

Question 1: Does instant gratification hinder us from being the best version of ourselves?

Question 2: What role does instant gratification play in affecting the communication between the conscious and the subconscious minds?

The first question was answered fairly quickly, thanks to a famous study called The Marshmallow Experiment. If you haven’t heard of this experiment, I highly recommend you look into two different variations conducted by researchers at Stanford University and University of Rochester.

The results of these experiments seem to make it crystal clear that instant gratification brings no lasting benefit except in that one single moment. That being said, does that mean we have to stop and weigh every decision between the short term and long term effect it will have on our lives? That seems exhausting not to mention unrealistic. Believe it or not, there is actually a way that we can organize and rapidly process our choices.

At the time of me writing this, my girlfriend is currently 9 months and 2 days into her pregnancy. For those of you that have kids currently, try to think back to the process of pregnancy. Obviously not something that happens overnight (but ironically the consequence of one night). It takes nine months to build up to one of the greatest moments in your entire life. If you are married, think about the time you spent dating your better half building up to marriage. If you’re neither married nor a parent, think of how long it took you to graduate and obtain a degree. No matter your current state in life, there has to be something that required dedication and time to accomplish. My point is that almost all of the very best things in life, the most memorable moments, take time, and usually dedication, to get to that point of true bliss and accomplishment. The first time you set eyes on your baby, or say your “I do’s” at the alter, or walk on graduation, it all is worth it and you wouldn’t take any of it back.

These are all examples of the exact opposite of instant gratification.

Initiating and holding a deeper perspective and seeing the potential end reward is what drives these types of decisions. Instant gratification ultimately simplifies down to choices and is rivaled by goals. Long term goals are the antidote to the self destructive plague of instant gratification. By setting a long term goal and being as consistent as possible with making choices that catalyze the achievement of that goal, you will find yourself making small choices that lead toward the accomplishment of that goal. As opposed to making a small choice that leads you to turning on the TV and binge watching Netflix until you fall asleep. It really comes down to the small decisions.

Goals are always achieved or failed by a series of small choices.

Every great time and memorable moment in my life have been made up of many small conscience decisions that eventually lead up to a moment of true bliss. For me, it becomes a challenge to consistently keep making conscience choices that lead to the betterment of myself. Whether that’s mentally, physically, emotionally, or in any other aspect of life. So often in today’s society we go straight to our five different social media feeds or check the score to the game or purchase the newest iPhone or smart watch and have it sent to our front door; all in effort to fill a subconscious void. Everything is now at our fingertips. We can now find the answers to any question that our minds can think of, with the presses of a few buttons. Instant gratification is now a way of life for people today. Goals are going out of style.

So to answer the question we started with here: yes, instant gratification absolutely does hinder us in becoming the best versions of ourselves but we know the kryptonite to instant gratification. Goals.

Make a goal and whatever you do, don’t eat the first marshmallow.

Question 2: What role does instant gratification play in affecting the communication between the conscious and subconscious minds?

For decades scientists believed that two separate neural systems constitute our decision making functionalities. Earlier science had dubbed these neural systems the ‘logical brain’ and the ‘emotional brain.’ Nowadays we know the exact brain regions that activate during decision making. Even further, we now know how short-term and long-term rewards affect these decisions neurologically. The logical and emotional systems include multiple sections of the brain:

Logical (aka ‘Upstairs Brain’)

• Frontal lobe
• Parietal lobe
• Temporal lobes
• Occipital lobe

Emotional (aka ‘Downstairs Brain’)

• Amygdala
• Hypothalamus
• Hippocampus

With this surface level understanding of the brain, lets break it down in relation to rewards (gratification). The central brain structure of the ‘rewards system’ is the nucleus accumbens which can be considered as one of the many “staircases” from the ‘Upstairs Brain’ to the ‘Downstairs Brain’. The nucleus accumbens is fed by Dopamine (which promotes the thought “I want to be gratified.”) and Serotonin (which promotes the thoughts “This could be a great gratification.” and “That was a great gratification.”) Often we correlate Dopamine and Serotonin with rewards such as hyper-sexuality and drugs which can both lead to abuse and/or addiction, but they are a driving force in our everyday tasks: food, work, sports, hobbies, family, friends, etc.. Luckily we are equipped with the prefrontal cortex, a subsection in our frontal lobe, that registers logic and rationale in our decision making.

Now that we have a general outline of what happens inside our brains during the process of making a decision on a conscious level (there is a lot, lot more that goes into it); going forward, we have to remember two things. One, each small task and simple decision often activates multiple and sometimes all the sections of the brain listed above. And two, unconscious neural processing takes place hundreds of milliseconds before conscious neural processing. Which means you are always ‘thinking before you act’ (which in some people might be hard to believe). With this knowledge we know that when it comes to instant gratification we have ‘time to think’. We literally weigh our options logically and incorporate any emotional history before actually making the decision.

Emotional history? We know that the ‘Downstairs Brain’ is responsible for processing our emotions but where do we store that emotional information? Theoretically, all of your past experiences will have a say in any and all of your future decisions. Naturally that makes accessing your emotional history and past experiences a key contributor in the war between instant and delayed gratification.

Enter the subconscious mind.

The subconscious mind archives everything we do in our mental database. Each small task and simple decision to every life-changing experience and memorable moment is recording in the subconscious. Contrary to popular belief, the subconscious is actually not a section in the brain but the brain is more of a section in the subconscious mind. Which is a whole other topic that borders spirituality and quantum physics. There’s another whole research project there but for the sake of staying on topic here, lets move on.

You can see the wheel starting to move here in the cycle of decision making. A situation is presented to you, within milliseconds you have gathered enough information from your subconscious to send to your brain which begins the never-ending battle between your emotion and logic (upstairs and downstairs). The fight between instant gratification and delayed gratification weigh in. Your subconscious mind will inform you about relatable past experiences as well as your goals both short and long-term. While your emotional brain is getting a rush of chemicals and urges you to put your goals to the side and go with the instant gratification. Until your logical brain butts in and refocuses on that goal and is pulling all your subconscious-stored experiences that relate to long term rewards.

Imagine this entire process (more or less) happening with every decision you make throughout your day. Although for most people this process happens on auto-pilot, the best way to take control of your life is to start ‘watching’ this process unfold and try especially hard to track your thoughts when it comes to the major decisions. What is your emotional brain telling you? What is your logical brain suggesting? What is your subconscious saying in regards to your past experiences and goals?

Think about your decisions. Understand how you think.