Sometimes, you just have to eat the marshmallow.

I was listening to an interview with Marshall Goldsmith, an American executive leadership coach and author, and he was talking about the Stanford University experiment on delayed gratification.

Children were given a marshmallow and told that if they waited and did not eat the fluffy deliciousness (my words) before the adult returned, they could get a second marshmallow. If you haven't seen it it's pretty funny. Check out the different ways kids try and distract themselves from the temptation sitting in front of them.

The experiment is purported to show that children who could delay gratification - not eat the marshmallow - went on to achieve more, having higher SAT results and fewer behavioural issues.  

Goldsmith asks us to think about what it would mean to take the experiment further. What if they waited longer for a third marshmallow and so forth? And if you keep extrapolating that, eventually, you get a kid in a room surrounded by thousands of marshmallows. And I believe his words then were, "Sometimes, you've just got to eat the darn marshmallow".

There are times for restraint and times for pleasures. For me, it highlighted how quite a few people I work with or coach keep putting off taking care of ourselves—people working another few hours each day to try and keep up with expectations that can be unreasonable.

Goldsmith told another story of a CEO of a large multinational who had a heart attack. When he came out of the hospital, he was asked what he would be changing about his lifestyle. The CEO replied, "Well, I'm not going to drink the cheap wine at dinner anymore."

There is much deep reflection going on following the changes from the last couple of years. What's ONE THING you putting off somewhat unreasonably? Is it time to eat the darn marshmallow?

Check out the video of the Marshmallow experiment here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QX_oy9614HQ