Instant Gratification
Is This Business?
I wanted to write about motivation and the drive to do something more immediately satisfying than what is necessary. I will be using a child as an example but it's something we all may need in business and in life. It's so much better if we can learn it when we are young.
Good Habits
My granddaughter stays with us at the weekend. She likes to sit around in her pyjamas and play with her toys or watch a film. On school nights, she delays doing homework until the last possible minute, then whines. I am trying to inculcate good habits of getting dressed as soon as you get up and doing homework when you come in or shortly after.
Consequences
She understands that there can be consequences to not getting things done straight away. For instance, he favourite auntcame down a couple of weeks ago and would have taken her out IF she had been dressed. She was not and so missed out.
Happy Times
She has also experienced getting homework done early and having the rest of the evening free. She really enjoyed that.
Overcoming Instant Gratification
She still finds it hard to give up the instant gratification of playing with toys or watching a film in order to do the boring bits of getting dressed or doing homework, even though she has experienced the disappointment and the pleasure.
Are We The Same?
I do not need to punish her (nor do I wish to) for not getting dressed or doing her homework straight away. Sheunderstands thepersonal consequences and i would prefer she learnt to motivate herself. I cannot blame her either, for I was very much the same at her age and for many years later.
Christmas Dinner
One Christmas, I was given a LARGE trilogy to read, as one of my presents. Christmas dinner being cooked was very much secondary to reading those books. Each one was 500 pages long and I had all three finished by the end of boxing day!
Image Credit » https://pixabay.com/en/croissant-chocolate-breakfast-648803/ by Films42
Comments
Kasman wrote on October 4, 2015, 5:45 PM
Children must learn the ways of the world and most of them do - eventually! Instant gratification is OK in some circumstances but no-one can live their life in such a manner.
LoudMan wrote on October 4, 2015, 5:57 PM
Good habits are so important to learn. You have my perpetual permission to use me living under a bridge as a precautionary tale. Everyone has this permission.
DWDavisRSL wrote on October 4, 2015, 6:12 PM
Our boys both understood that school work and chores were to be done before games and television. They also understood that until they started paying the cable bill they would watch what mother and father told them they could watch and what video/computer games they could play. I had to punish A once and Z never for infractions of these expectations. A lost computer privileges for two weeks for not getting his chores done when his mother told him to. From the time they were old enough to understand, we made our expectations plain, and they always (except that once) rose to meet them. Children want and need clear guidelines, limits, and expectations from the adults in their lives. Too much freedom of choice too early leaves them adrift and unable to make good decisions.
MegL wrote on October 4, 2015, 6:22 PM
Thank you. I was going to make a "smart A*** comment and then decided it would be too flippant!
MegL wrote on October 4, 2015, 6:22 PM
Absolutely!
CoralLevang wrote on October 4, 2015, 7:20 PM
Hmmm....does the fact that I stayed asleep until 2 p.m. and I'm still in my robe and slippers at 3:45 p.m. indicate a poorly-raised childhood? ROFLMAO
wolfgirl569 wrote on October 4, 2015, 9:17 PM
I love my pjs, but they are for days when I only see the critters and hubby. My boys knew the school work had to be done before being allowed to go play in any way. One friend whose parents did not care when he did his would have to sit in the kitchen with me if he got there before the boys were done. But the rest of the neighborhood kids had the same rules
Feisty56 wrote on October 4, 2015, 10:03 PM
There's an old adage I pull out from time to time, when the occasion warrants: "If you don't listen, you gotta feel." You're so right -- your granddaughter will learn these lessons when she's ready to. In the meantime, she will miss some opportunities.
DWDavisRSL wrote on October 4, 2015, 10:05 PM
According to the rules my father taught me, if you haven't grown up by the time you hit 50, you don't have to. I use that rule to excuse all kinds of things I do these days, LOL.
And I was up at 7am to let the dogs out and I'm still in my pj's getting ready to go back to bed. I love days when I don't have to leave the house.
CoralLevang wrote on October 4, 2015, 10:23 PM
Oh, heck! I've wasted 10 more years trying? LOL
cheri wrote on October 5, 2015, 1:38 AM
Children learn easily while they are still young.
Paulie wrote on October 5, 2015, 5:05 AM
With the advent of the Internet and all of the latest electronic gadgets, instant gratification among the young is more of a problem than in years past.
markgraham wrote on October 5, 2015, 9:41 AM
Everything in moderation I think this fits in with instant gratification.
WordChazer wrote on October 5, 2015, 4:46 PM
When I was in school mum would give me half an hour off (4.00-4.30pm) for a drink and a biscuit then I would have to go upstairs and get on with homework. I would have a break for supper from 7.00-7.30pm then normally be done by 8.30pm or latest 9pm. The exception was Friday, when I was allowed to have until 6pm off before starting homework. It was then to be finished on a Saturday morning and absolutely done by Sunday lunchtime.
BarbRad wrote on October 6, 2015, 2:45 AM
Good books to read are great temptations for me, too. I've been resisting the temptation this week because I have so many blogs to get written.
missfortune wrote on October 6, 2015, 4:56 PM
Sometimes kids have to learn things the hard way; I let them stay up as late as they want to watch television or play video games but they know that if they aren't up in the morning because of their late nights they aren't going to get any sympathy from me. Those late night antics lasted a couple weeks before they got sick of being tired all day
AliCanary wrote on October 7, 2015, 5:30 AM
Ha ha! Yep, instant gratification is a very powerful urge to resist.