The Secret to Success: Don't Eat the Marshmallow, Yet!

"Don't eat the Marshmallow, Yet!" is not alluding to how to be successful on "The Biggest Loser,” but rather instead to the secret to success in life. It seems that the ability to delay gratification, even at a young age, sets one up for more success in life. Check out what happened with these kids when they were told that if they did not eat a marshmallow, they would receive an additional marshmallow. The squirming they do to NOT eat the marshmallow is hilarious and also a sign that they know how to delay gratification for greater rewards later.

It seems like this entertaining video is based on a similar test that followed young marshmallow eaters or avoiders into their adulthood. Those that were able to delay eating the marshmallow enjoyed greater success in their life, as marked by SAT scores, college attendance, and even debt avoidance. Those are some measures of what makes a successful life and were the measures looked at in the studies. There are other measures of what being a successful person truly means, but I think that it is true that the ability to delay gratification is a skill that is admirable and needed in our "instant" and "self-centered" society.

You can see another video that explains this test more. It is another TedTalks video: this time of motivational speaker, Joachim de Posada,sho is also the author of the book Don't Eat The Marshmallow Yet!: The Secret to Sweet Success in Work and Life.
It is again filled with video of children trying their hardest not to eat the marshmallow. He explains some of the lessons we can learn about the benefits of delaying gratification. He even goes so far as to infer that our country has a problem with, "Eating more marshmallows then it produces."