Delayed Gratification Defined: 4 Benefits of Delayed Gratification

Delayed gratification refers to forgoing a smaller reward in the short term for a greater reward in the long term. This differs from instant gratification (or delay discounting), in which you seek out as much pleasure as possible in the short term without regard to achieving long-term goals.

This might feel like a default mode for some people, but short-circuiting this tendency of cognition can have a more desirable outcome. While it might feel good to release yourself from your inhibitions, heeding them can prove a more worthwhile strategy for long-term contentment and satisfaction.

The Stanford marshmallow experiment sums up the value of delayed gratification. By studying children who could or could not delay snacking on marshmallows for just a few minutes, psychologists gained valuable insights into why deferred gratification is so important as a predictor of future success.

Stanford University psychologist and professor Walter Mischel set out to study the delay of gratification in children. To do so, he invited a group of preschoolers to choose between receiving just one marshmallow as a treat at any time or waiting fifteen minutes to receive a second marshmallow in addition to the first. Those who proved successful in the preschool delay of gratification task went on to receive higher SAT scores as high schoolers, exhibit greater self-worth, and avoid addictive behaviors.

This marshmallow experiment proved a valuable study in social psychology for decades. Further research by psychologists Celeste Kidd, Holly Palmeri, and Richard Aslin supplemented the experiment’s findings by claiming children and adults must earnestly believe they’ll gain more from delaying gratification than seeking out shorter-term pleasures.

Learning how to delay gratification can help you achieve all different kinds of goals. See how delayed gratification can benefit you in these four different ways:

1. 1. Greater mental stability: As you solidify your ability to chase long-term rewards instead of short-term distractions, you’ll also shore up your mental health and well-being. With this greater mental stability, staying the course to achieve distant goals becomes much easier. You’ll also gain the emotional intelligence to know how to adequately meet your needs and refine your decision-making process as a whole.
2. 2. Improved performance at work: A child’s ability to defer gratification at a young age correlates to their eventual tendency to do the same in both academic and work environments. When you can successfully put off seeking short-term bursts of pleasure to wait for a better reward in the long run, you can better build your competencies to excel in all areas of life.
3. 3. Increased social competence: In social contexts, young children and adults alike stand to gain a great deal from delaying rewards rather than seeking them out at every possible moment. If you only ever want immediate gratification, it’ll lead you to put your needs above others at all times, hampering your ability to make and maintain lasting relationships.
4. 4. Reduced engagement in harmful behaviors: The successful delay of gratification can lead to a reduction in harmful and addictive behaviors. Addiction is instant gratification taken to the nth degree, and it can wreak havoc on both your mental and physical health. Delayed gratification enables you to find more positive and durable coping mechanisms.

When you delay gratification, you steadily improve your ability to maintain impulse control over a long period. Keep these tips in mind as you seek to improve your delayed gratification abilities:

• Ask if instant gratification really works. It might seem counterintuitive at first to seek out a delayed reward instead of an instant one. Still, take a moment to see if pursuing short-term pleasures leads to true satisfaction. For example, imagine taking a monetary reward of one dollar in the here and now instead of waiting just an hour to receive one hundred dollars. Delayed gratification often leads to better rewards in the real world, too.
• Practice mindfulness. In the short term, practicing meditation can allow you the mental space to put off granting yourself a small kick of dopamine in the interest of pursuing a larger reward down the line. Ironically, the relaxation you experience through mindfulness meditation can prove to be a small reward in and of itself. The more you practice, the greater your self-regulation capabilities will become.
• Reward yourself well. Follow up your patient efforts to delay gratification by granting yourself a bigger reward than you could have received through mere instant gratification. To maintain resiliency, you have to feel like it can pay off. Immediate rewards will be easier to let go of if you know a more satisfying one waits for you on the horizon.
• Start with small goals. Self-discipline is hard work, so take a few baby steps to start. See if you can wait a day for a future reward rather than insist you can hold steady for a year. Instant gratification can be a hard habit to break, so grant yourself some grace as you gradually work toward forgoing short-term treats in the interest of achieving long-term goals.

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