The Marshmallow Test: How to Master Delayed Gratification for Career Success

They ran an experiment with kids where they could either eat one marshmallow now or they could wait 15 minutes and then they could get two. And what they proved is that the kids that could delay gratification went on to do better in life. They could hold out for the better outcome. And then actually when you do then start to put this into kind of an everyday life context, you do realize it sort of stacks up in lots. of different ways.

You probably do your best work when delayed gratification is part of the process. I think ladder-like careers sometimes have a bit more instant gratification things in there. You know, like get promoted, get happy. You know, this idea that like if I do that then this is the outcome. I think our days and weeks are full of one marshmallow decisions that we often do without thinking because of habits that we've got into.

If you can just thinking, but what will the two marshmallow payoff be here? With that in mind, what choice do I want to make? Hi, it's Helen from the Squiggly Careers podcast. And before you listen to today's episode, I wanted to let you know about some news that Sarah and I are very excited about, and that is that our new book

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