What We Can Learn From the Marshmallow Test?

A while ago, my Fiancee and I were visiting a friend in Summerside, PEI. When we were there we somehow got on a topic about the famous marshmallow test which is frequently highlighted in many areas of psychology. Instead of boring you with the mundane pieces of the study let me summarize it for you.

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There were a group of 600 children involved in a study to see how they would react to stimulus and impulse. Kids in the study had a marshmallow placed in front of them. They were told that if they ate the marshmallow within 15 minutes they would only get the one more marshmallow. However, if they were to wait 15 minutes they would be granted a second marshmallow after they ate the first.

Long story short, many of those children who could hold off their impulses to not eat the marshmallow eventually ended up becoming more successful in the areas of self-discipline and willpower than the children who could not resist the marshmallow and ate it within the first 15 minutes.

Which type of person would you be if someone put a marshmallow in front of you?

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Being able to see something in front of you that you know you want but being able to mentally separate your impulses from logic can take you very far in life. We see this play out all the time as adults. For example, do we choose fast food when we are hungry? Do we skip straight to Netflix after a tough day at work? Do we indulge with chocolate when relationships become stressful?

What about when you are at the grocery store and you walk in hungry what are the first things you see? Likely something that would be considered “comfort food” or highly processed. Your impulse right away is to justify to yourself that this is a good purchase for you because it will meet your needs. I guarantee that if you waited 15 minutes to come back to that same product you would be so caught up in your logical, self-disciplined shopping that you would forget all about the food and not purchase it.

The marshmallow test or shopping test or eating test or whatever you want to frame it as has many lessons and breadcrumbs to why certain decisions can ultimately affect our success in life. For example, if you can hold off on buying something impulsively, you are subconsciously training your mind to be patient. In a world that is fast paced and based on quick, impulsive decisions, we want things easy and in the now.

We want the raise now.

We want the nice car now.

We don’t want to wait those 15 minutes or in some cases 15 years to get what we want.

The marshmallow test also shows us a lesson in perseverance. If we can control our mind to ‘suffer’ for a brief period of time before seeking our reward we are leagues ahead of the competition in our fields. We will grind it out, outlast the field and constantly look for ways to separate ourselves from others with our endless desire to ‘suffer’ to succeed. That resilient mentality gives you an edge that does not come with a GPA or experience. It comes with a patient, disciplined mindset.

My encouragement for you today is this. Wait 15 minutes before you make any large decisions; especially emotionally charged ones. The next time a promotion is offered to you or you have an impulse to buy something that may not fully align with your goals; step back, be mindful and evaluate the reasoning behind the actions. Delayed gratification for the greater good of your life will take you much further than just getting a taste and wondering why you couldn’t have more down the road.

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This post was previously published on Medium.com.

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