Just Wait! Good Things Will Come (4V)

Delayed gratification: the ability to resist the temptation for and immediate reward and wait for a later reward.

This week I class we talked about the marshmallow test, and how it tested young children’s’ ability to delay gratification. Watching the kids try so hard to resist the temptation was quite hilarious. Some in a matter of seconds ate it with no hesitation. At such a young age I don’t think we have developed a solid understanding that a better reward will come if we wait. I think it’s interesting how researchers took that study and made a connection between the level of delayed gratification and how success they ended up being. I don’t really agree that it determines success. Those kids could experience different things later on in life that could make them more or less successful but its cant be based on that one test.

Not too long ago my younger sister who is 16 years old wanted the new IPhone 5. She knew that a newer type of IPhone was coming out soon but she was stuck between waiting for longer for the new more updated one or getting the regular IPhone 5. I talked to her and told her to wait because the newer one coming out has a cooler update and everyone’s going to want that one. She really had to think about how bad she wanted the phone. Eventually she just waited a few more weeks until the new IPhone 5c came out. A perfect example of delayed gratification.

New Vocabulary Words:

Obfuscation: Hiding of intended meaning in communication, making communication confusing or harder to understand.

Ignominious: deserving or causing public disgrace or shame

What If...(4B)

What would happen if one day our brains could conquer ego depletion?

Ego depletion is when you exhaust your mental energy. Suddenly your cravings for those delicious cupcake sitting on your kitchen counter, the frustration you get when you realize the hours of homework you have ahead of you and the desires that no longer seem to be in your vicinity all becoming overwhelming.  But what if somehow we could in a matter of second make that all disappear? What if we could trick our brains out of being overwhelmed?

I am the type of person that like to be on top of her work and not slack and fall behind in my classes. Sometimes procrastination gets the best of me, and out of nowhere I am sitting in my room for hours on end getting homework, projects, and assignments due the very next day. The feeling of having so much to do in such little time stresses me out, and most defiantly gets overwhelming. If there were a way we could mediate or make ourselves get out of feeling overwhelmed ego depletion would no longer be problem.

People trying to change their eating habits would have a much easier time if they could trick their minds into not craving sweets and unhealthy foods. It would motivate people to change their life styles and make healthier choices. I know for me I’ve always been back and forth between with staying healthy, and if craving would no longer over power me I think I could keep making healthy choices!

Overall everything that we have to force ourselves to do would be so easy! We are always looking for the easiest way to do things and so if ego depletion didn’t even exist imagine the possibilities. People wouldn’t think about the negative aspects of doing things just the final product which is what our mentality should be.

“To conquer frustration, one must remain intensely focused on the outcome, not the obstacles.”  

Where Has the Patience Gone? (4A)

I can’t blame my parents for not being able to satisfy my every need as a child. Sure there were toys I wish had, but at least they were able to see a smile on their daughters face with a simple little toy when Christmas time came around. I knew how hard they work to make money for the extra things so I didn’t ask for much as a child. Growing up with that mentality, I think it defiantly taught me to wait for things also know as delayed gratification. Now that I am older, and I have a different mindset about things, waiting for things is easier for me than most kids out there. 

Americans today have little to no patience because of the circumstances we live in. We have become to use to instant information being streamed to us through technology. We like everything now, we need it quick or we lose the patience to wait, which is not ideal. Our society today revolves around making things easier, more efficient to work with. For example, we have ways to buy movie tickets online or through the phone so that we don’t have to wait in a long line. We are able to reserve a table at the classiest restaurant through a simple phone call, and we are able to watch shows online instantly. There are always people working on ways to fix the little things to make them even better. As we get so accustom to instant we create instant gratification.

Instant gratification is the need to have things in the moment you want it. Over time, having that desire for things now makes our patience level go down. I defiantly think that instant gratification is making us less and less patient with things. There was a study conducted on people and it tested their patience. They concluded that in a matter of seconds, if an online video does not stream instantly people tend to lose interest and leave the video. Majority of the people only lasted 2 seconds before navigating away from the video. This just goes to show how we don’t even have the patience to wait such a little time. I’ll admit when videos don’t load immediately I get anxious and find another video or another way of getting to it. It doesn’t just apply to technology it applies to real life too. Over the summer I went to Six Flags and I was thrilled to go on all the crazy, wild rides. The lines were incredibly long and made me want to cringe just at the sight of it. Waiting 1 hour in line for a ride that last 2 minutes is ridiculous. Therefore Six Flags came up with the “Flash Pass”. Flash Pass lets you cut the line and let’s you ride the coasters as many times as you want. Sounds worth it when you think about it but reality hits when you look at the prices it comes at.

We need to stop, take a breath, look around and reevaluate ourselves. Do we really need every bit of information available for us immediately? No! Sure there are something’s that we need to know right away and I think that would be and emergency type situation. Just because we don’t have answers immediately doesn’t mean it’s the end of the world. In high school and in college I have met some pretty inpatient people. If one little thing doesn’t go right they just lose it. I don’t think that’s a quality that employers are looking for in people as they pursue in their career.   Whether its videos, news, show or anything we have a low patience level. What will happen when we no longer have patience? 

Striving for Excellence (3V)

Motivation: the reason or reasons one has for acting or behaving in a particular way.

Motivation is the key to reaching your goals. You have to have that fire inside that get you moving! Without motivation nobody would fight for what they want, nobody would try or put effort in. Motivation can be different things for different people. For some it might be a person, others it might be a dream they are working towards. Once you find that motivation you need to use it. I believe that it can push you farther than you can imagine. Its a powerful force within us, if we set our minds to do something we can do anything, no doubt about that.   

Last year i decided to retake the SAT's to see if I could get a higher score. I wasn't too happy with what I got the first time so I set a goal for myself. Every night I would work on practice problems, and I had a tutor I went to go see every week. I was doing everything i could to really prepare myself for this test. I knew that with all this work it had to pay off. The day of the test came around before I knew it I found myself bitting my nails off, extremely nervous for this test. I took a deep breath and put all the practice and work to good use. Of course I had some obstacles in the way such as Hurricane Sandy, but that didn't stop me. I went to my friends house because she had power and I continued to study hard. My motivation was to get a good score. I clearly saw how bad I did with no effort put in. It was an eye opener for me and I'm glad i went through all that practice because it defiantly paid off for me.

2 new vocabulary words:

Rebuttal: A refutation or contradiction

Fallacy: a mistaken belief especially one based on unsound argument. 

Fans in the Stands (3I)

Growing up my mom loved the Yankee’s. She took my two younger siblings and I to go see them play at Yankee Stadium. It was such an exciting game to watch, and the atmosphere of the game was so much fun. Over time I just stopped watching baseball, until last spring I met this guy who played baseball and I wanted to support him by going to his games. I was so embarrassed because I didn’t really now what went on in baseball. I didn’t know the rules very well so I was on a mission to know everything about the game. I began watching games online and researching all the basic rules I needed to know. After all of this craziness I ended up loving baseball, I love watching it.

Over the weekend I heard about a baseball game going on it was Southern vs. UConn Avery Point, and I was excited to go see them regardless of what people said about them. Not really sure if it was a real game maybe a scrimmage. It was still fun to watch! It was hard to keep track of the teams because they were both the same color blue, the only difference was that Southern had an “SC” on the shirts and UConn had an “AP”. From the stands you couldn’t even tell which was which but that didn’t matter. It was fun to attend and I will go back in the spring to support them!