Heyo guys!!! Who missed me? I definitely missed this community. Guess who just had her defence!!!!
There have been a lot going on with me in recent times some of which I would share at a later date. But for now, let’s live in the moment and discuss on a very vital topic that affects us as youths. During the course of this week, I got to the point where I was just tired, reading was not even making sense to me anymore, sleepless nights with a lot of eye bags. Then I was thinking all I want is just a comfortable life with all the paparazzi that comes with it. (You know living lavidaloca, living large).
However, the question popped up; how many of us are ready to delay gratification in order for our dreams to be a reality? Delay gratification just means sacrificing the pleasures you can get now for a later reward. How much of parties, irrelevant gists, relationships, social media, sleep and others, are we willing to give up for our dreams to become a reality. Like my lecturer would say all of us are smart some just work harder enough than the others and this in itself reflect on our result, not only in academics but in that career path you’ve chosen.
Photographer A is not a “more talented’ person than photographer B. the difference is the former has denied himself of some pleasures by studying, watching YouTube videos, practicing to become better, while the latter just take every day as it comes, without any plan on how to achieve his dreams.
The pressure to conform can seem intense but you have to take deliberate steps to invest in your purpose. The beauty of delay gratification is that on the long run one begins to see results. It is a life full of fulfillment and indescribable joy.
Few ways you can delay gratification;
Visualize the bigger picture
Like Stephen Covey said ‘begin with the end clearly in mind’. Where you do this, it is easier to delay gratification. Your pursuit for success would be more important than sleeping 20 hours out of 24 hours. Or just watching movies while you should be going for classes or playing the summer away while you should be developing yourself in certain skills. For me, the bigger picture was getting my defence done really well.
Set your fears instead of your goals
In setting your fears, you can determine your cost of inactions. For example, the fear of being poor or a frustrated adult would make you apply for that internship or learn and develop that skill. Fear of not being relevant in your chosen field of study can be a motivating factor to feed your goals. Fear of not defending at the appropriate time got me working tirelessly to finish my project on time.
Improve day little by little
We are what we repeatedly do. Our little act forms our habit success is a journey, not a sudden experience. Hence trying to cut of habit that is not gravitating us to our goals might not be easy but putting a conscious effort to drop this habit would be of great importance. You can train yourself every day with small rewards for a small delay. For instance, I give myself a little over the budget lunch having completed a task or see that movie I delayed because I wanted to read my books.
Flee from your comfort zone.
It is the number one enemy of progress. Success is much of what you do outside of your comfort zone.
On a final note, the kind of life you want to live is not a façade, the point is are you ready to deny yourselves of instant gratification to get that kind of life.
Think about it!!