Delayed Gratification

We all know what instant gratification is because we hear it a lot, we hear it very often. I don't know about you, but in my case, I hear it more whenever it has to do with physical pleasure. But the truth is, immediate or instant gratification can be related to all areas in our life: about food, about health, about the work we do, about the career we built or not. Also, I started to notice that we become so familiarized with the term instant gratification that we end up giving all our focus to it, instead of giving it to the term that we should be focusing on, and that is delayed gratification.

Now, why do I say that we should focus more on delayed gratification than instant gratification? Because I believe, and I have confirmed by experience, that we become the thing that we give our focus to. So, I highly suggest us as humans to start focusing on the things that deserve our focus. This is related to focusing on the positive things. We give so much to the terms and the things that we don't want in our lives, and that we despise or make us feel stuck, that we forget to pay attention to the things that benefit us, that make us grow.

If you do not feel successful but rather you feel stuck, you might be unconsciously looking for instant gratification. Let's put it this way: are you comfortable with your body, are you comfortable with your diet, do you have the job you want? But here are more important questions: are you doing something to improve your body, to eat heartier, and are you pursuing a better job or are you improving your skills? Or are you still thinking about why you can't find the right motivation to go to the gym, or why are you still eating those doughnuts? It's not about the motivation; it's about your focus.

Why is it about your focus? It's about the focus because you might not be holding on to something substantial. You are focusing on goals that are not bigger than you; you are focusing on the instant gratification. What if you focus on the long-term gratification instead? Would you be looking for body and healthy results in the first week at the gym, or would you be looking to be rich while you are still at your same job, or after you took a small certificate in Coursera? The answer is NO. You will be looking at results later; you will focus on your commitment more than your results.

Make sure to grab your motivation from something that is bigger than you, from something that is more far-reaching, but which you know you will only get with consistency. Have a good week.

Written on October 4th, 2025