Sacrifice Now, Live Better Tomorrow
Delayed gratification vs Instant gratification
Everything is right in front of us. All the things you need are just one click away. But in this modern and tech-oriented world, we ought to take things for granted. We accomplished things, but we didn’t feel satisfied. What is this emptiness we feel?
Here’s an interesting experiment that might be the answer to this question:
The Marshmallow Experiment is an experiment where a child was offered one marshmallow and was told to wait for a period of time, so they could get two marshmallows. So, the children can either get the instant reward of one marshmallow or wait for a much bigger reward.
It doesn’t stop there. The researchers actually stayed in contact with the children after years of that experiment. Over time, they monitor their behavior, SAT scores, educational attainment, body mass index (BMI), and other life measures. It turns out that, the children who can wait longer for the preferred rewards have better life outcomes than the children who weren’t able to wait.
Now it all comes down to this:
“How much comfort are you willing to sacrifice for your future self?”
Right now we have social media, junk food, online dating, video games, and drugs. All of those things grant us instant happiness. Which will fulfill us at the moment, but how long does that contentment last?
Everything that is easy are also easy to slip away. I’ve talked about this in one of my articles: “Why do we feel empty?” about how the reward system in our brain works.
So basically, here’s our dopamine system
Now if we do the instant gratification, the dopamine system will look like this:
We start at the Baseline level where we just feel ok. Then, we do the instant gratification, let’s say this time we scroll through our phone instead of doing whatever project we’re currently working on. At first, we see images and videos that stimulate our brain to feel happy and satisfied, so the dopamine level goes up. But then we remember the project we left behind, so the dopamine goes back down, not only to the baseline level but below that.
Over time, the pattern continues and look how hard it is to get to the baseline level. We struggle to feel the same amount of happiness we once felt when we do the initial instant gratification. We feel bad about ourselves, after years, as the dopamine level goes lower and lower from the baseline, we feel deprived and eventually depressed.
This explains why we felt happier when we were kids. We didn’t have that much stimulation back then. We can feel more satisfaction just from watching our favorite cartoons on TV that were broadcasted after school. Or even just building a fortress made out of cardboard boxes and used newspapers. These are the things that are so simple now, but back then was our whole world.
But what if we flip it around?
When we do the delayed gratification, we experience discomfort at first. Maybe this time you decided to do a brain-frying study session, and the dopamine level goes down, but after it’s done, the dopamine level rises not just to the baseline, but it rises above the baseline. Now we have a new baseline that was higher than the previous one.
And just like instant gratification, over time, as we do this every day for years, the baseline level is sky high. This means we’ll stay happy and content for a longer period of time since it’s harder to sink the dopamine level way beyond the new baseline that we build. And you’ll look back, and think “Why haven’t I started this sooner?”
In life, we have to choose whether we want an easy way out that will eventually betray us in the future or build something sustainable and more rewarding, even if it gives us a little discomfort at first.
What goals do you have right now? Is it better grades? Make more money? Or have your dream body?
Remember, goals are only your destination. What’s important is to be there in the process. Showing up to yourself every day and feeling the dopamine rises higher than the last time. You’ll eventually become your future self in the end. So don’t give up what you want the most, for what you want right now.
