EMBRACING DELAYED GRATIFICATION

WHAT DELAYED GRATIFICATION?

Delayed gratification is the act of resisting instant gratification in order to be able to get a better reward later. I’m sure many of you heard of the marshmallow experiment. This was where kids were offered one marshmallow now, or two later. If they waited a period of time for the researcher to leave and come back they could have two marshmallows.  They then did follow-up studies on the children and found that those that could wait had overall better life outcomes.  The study results have been disputed over time so not everyone agrees that there is a definite connection here.  But, I thought it was worth mentioning just for fun!

Delayed gratification is a skill that is really important in being able to achieve financial goals. Most financial goals are longer-term. This requires us to be able to wait until a date sometime in the future to get the rewards. Delayed gratification can be practiced and improved over time by being mindful of your actions.

GETTING INSTANT GRATIFICATION FROM DELAYING GRATIFICATION

When you are intentional about delaying gratification in order to make progress on your goals you can get the same feeling, or often an even better feeling by delaying gratification. This is difficult for me to explain and this might not be the best example. Say you go to the store to pick something up, maybe a store like Target where there are so many different things that you might be tempted with impulse items while you are walking around the aisles.  You get home, take another look at the receipt, and think how did I just spend $70 when I only needed to pick up dishwasher detergent?  The items might have seemed fun when you grabbed them, but now you are over budget and when thinking about it, you really didn’t need those other things.

Say instead you march into target telling yourself, I will not purchase anything but the dishwasher detergent.  You walk straight to the aisle, grab the detergent, and head to the register. If your habit had always been grabbing extra things and leaving with a $70 receipt, when you go to the register and pay your $10 and leave, the feeling of that accomplishment and the control that you exercised will be way better than what you would have gotten from buying the random things in the store

TRACKING YOUR GOALS

One way to embrace delayed gratification is to track your progress and celebrate goal milestones along the way. If you just work and save and get no rewards along the way, it can become difficult to keep going and continue making progress on your goals. You want to be able to enjoy your life while you are working on your goals.  So, setting up a mechanism to track your goals, and setting milestones to celebrate can make it fun to watch your progress and make it much more enjoyable to keep going.

DON’T LET OTHER PEOPLE PRIORITIES BECOME YOUR OWN

Just because your neighbor got a new car, does not mean you suddenly need a new car!  If it wasn’t important to you before they got it, it shouldn’t be now.  This is an extreme example, but it’s important to remind yourself of your priorities and what want to accomplish.

PRACTICE BEING MORE INTENTIONAL WITH YOUR PURCHASES

When you see something that you would like to purchase on impulse, try to allow yourself some time to consider if this is really how you want to utilize your money. One way to do this is to make a list of things you want to purchase, instead of purchasing them right away.  This gives you some time to reconsider if this is something you really want to spend your money on.

YOU CAN HAVE ANYTHING YOU WANT, BUT YOU CAN’T HAVE EVERYTHING YOU WANT

With limited resources available to us, it’s important to remember that each time you make a purchase, at the same time you are making a decision not to purchase something else.  If you can try to make each purchase decision with this in mind, it can really help you be more mindful of how you are spending your money.

FINAL THOUGHTS

One final thought is just that when you work hard for something and practice patience in achieving short and long-term goals, when you finally achieve the goal there is so much more enjoyment out of the whole experience than by just purchasing anything want whenever you want.  There is more of an appreciation for what you are doing.

This can be anything from saving up for a dinner out, a day trip, a vacation, or retirement.  Whatever it is, it’s just a different feeling when you have been waiting and putting aside money for these things because they are important to you.

Thanks so much for checking in! If you would like to hear the podcast version of this topic to check out Lola’s Frugal Life Podcast! Also, be sure to check out my other blog posts on this site!

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