During one of those "longitudinal studies" where they conduct an experiment and then observe the person for many years afterward, a series of children were placed in a room with a big, delicious cookie. The researchers explained that they would leave the room, and that if the child refrained from eating the cookie until the researcher returned, then they would earn a second cookie.
What would you do?
Amazingly (to me), several children ate the cookie - their impulses to enjoy the moment being too strong to justify waiting around for the reward of the second one. As you might have guessed, those children grew up to be people with some fairly ugly problems later in life.
But maybe I shouldn't be amazed. After all, I still find myself sitting with a proverbial cookie in front of me from time to time. My ego cries for things to change for my betterment and right now. And I've eaten the cookie more than once, with disastrous results like broken relationships and failed projects. Life is natural, nature is gradual, and there's more than one right path to success most of the time. The more I sit back and accept today for what it is, with eyes on the more distant future and visions of a joyful ending, the better I eat!
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