Delayed gratification | Rich-people habits

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Delay of gratification: the act of resisting an impulse to take an immediately available reward in the hope of obtaining a more-valued reward in the future (According to Britannica)

Do you remember that person you loved so much that you thought you couldn't do without them, but right now you haven't heard from them in years and you are still alive and thriving? Or that particular phone you really wanted, and after you got it, you didn't feel as good as you thought you would? Talk about that place that you once dreamt of visiting, and when you got the chance to visit it, you never felt as extra-ordinary as you thought it'd make you, you still feel pretty much the same. Our feelings and wants change almost every day, or even every couple of hours, which makes delayed gratification very important.

When you make a decision in times when you are happy, excited, joyful or just idle, how sure are you that you will want to commit to the same decision in times when you're sad, tired, stressed, busy, or  angry?

When we take longer to grant ourselves the things that we feel we immediately want at a particular time, we give ourselves room to briefly see how we feel about that want or idea through our different emotions.

Let's say you want to start a kids' boutique kind of business; it's an exciting idea and through your mind's eye, you see most things starting to fall into place. Yet you need to consider will you be able to persevere when you have no customers for a prolonged period of time? Can you get yourself to go to work even when you don't want to? Can you lovingly handle a disrespecting child on a day that is already bad?

Or maybe, before you plan to start blogging, before you start, and besides getting know more about it, you need to know if you can do it, if you can get to write even when you are tired, too busy, sad, happy, or even when you have to rewrite a certain article three times or even more.

Not so long ago, I was in a season of brainstorming creative ideas. After thinking through about four potential ideas, a friend asked me to help them with their creative idea, which happened to be among those I had given thought earlier. 

I was very excited, I sure thought it was a confirmation from the Lord to give that creative idea a chance, as I was excited and quickly gave my word to help. In that moment I felt my heart questioning me, "Why don't you respect your two-weeks delayed gratification rule?" (this is a self-imposed rule where I don't make decisions regarding commitments unless I give it some good thought or let it be for at least two weeks, if at all it's not urgent)

"No way!" I thought, "God has confirmed this already, let me just get right to it!" Long story short, due to issues beyond my control, I didn't get to give my written commitment to the idea until two weeks had gone by, after which I realized I was about to make one of the biggest mistakes I would have ever made.

In our generation, it is sometimes hard for us to say No to ourselves when we have the means, simply because we need to check if our want is the best and wisest use of our resources. 

We want it now, but will we be happy with that decision two years from now, two weeks from now?

If we train our brain that we'll give it whatever it wants exactly when it wants it, that's how it will respond when you are tasked to make bigger, riskier decisions. You won't be able to wait in order to give that decision more thought and avoid trouble.

"The sharp man sees the evil and takes cover: the simple go straight on and get into trouble."

Proverbs 22:3

Delayed gratification is one of the rich-people habits. Most wealthy people have trained themselves to give up what they desire in the moment to invest in the future. 

Maybe they really want to host a nice birthday party on a yacht, and they can, because they have the money; they might even feel like they deserve the birthday treat, but they will most probably choose to delay giving themselves that pleasure in order to invest more in their future until the luxurious birthday treat is just a small portion of their wealth.

"The wise have wealth and luxury, but fools spend whatever they get." Proverbs 21:20

The rich man doesn't have wealth and luxury because he is rich, he is rich because he has wealth and luxury. Yet the poor man devours all he has in the moment, no self-denial,  no saving, and no, he doesn't invest. 

I am also convinced that this habit makes us better Christians, since living according to the Spirit and not our flesh requires delayed gratification almost all the time. It might be hard to tell the way of the Spirit in a heated moment, but when you take time off, you'll surely be able to discern the way to go.

Unless its urgent, delay gratification.

Another lovely Wednesday.

Getting excited each Wednesday we get closer to Christmas because the same will make our one year anniversary since we started sharing and loving each other through this blog site.

God bless you!