What makes human beings distinct from animals, and very successful as a species, is our capacity to voluntarily postpone immediate reward in order to accomplish long term goals. For example, if a man goes fishing, and eats each fish as soon as he catches it, instead of saving all the fish to feed his family for a week, he is not demonstrating the capacity to delay gratification.
Indeed, success in life generally, and at school in particular, is related to what is labelled: “delay of gratification”. Formally, delay of gratification is described as: “To function effectively, individuals must be able voluntarily to postpone immediate gratification and persist in self-directed behaviour for the sake of their preferred but delayed goals, while resisting the frustration created by competing temptations at the moment.” (Mischel, 2004).
The definition points to five essential elements that comprise effective delay of gratification. First, to delay gratification, one has to make a voluntary decision. Even if the fisherman is hungry now, he must decide to continue fishing until he has 10 fish for his family. Second, to successfully delay gratification, one has to wait to satisfy one’s immediate needs, so that the immediate gratification, eating the fish right now, is postponed. Third, delay gratification requires that one persist in order to achieve long term goals. The fisherman must continue fishing until he has attained his long term goal of feeding his family for the week. Finally, one has to be able to cope with frustration, such as hunger, and be able to suppress the temptation to eat the one fish right away.
