Page 126 - The Power to Change Anything

Surpass Your Limits 115

Professor Walter Mischel of Stanford University, curious
about people’s inability to withstand temptations, set out to
explore this issue. Did certain humans have the right stuff while
others didn’t? And if so, did the right stuff affect lifelong per-
formance? What Mischel eventually came to understand
altered the psychological landscape forever.

MUCH OF WILL IS SKILL

When “Timmy,” age four, sat down at the gray metal table in
an experimental room in the basement of Stanford’s psychol-
ogy department, the child saw something that caught his inter-
est. On the table was a marshmallow—the kind Timmy’s mom
put into his cup of hot chocolate. Timmy really wanted to eat
the marshmallow.
The kindly man who brought Timmy into the room told
him that he had two options. The man was going to step out
for a moment. If Timmy wanted to eat the marshmallow, he
could eat away. But if Timmy chose to wait a few minutes until
the man returned, then Timmy could eat two marshmallows.
Then the man exited. Timmy stared at the tempting sugar
treat, squirmed in his chair, kicked his feet, and in general tried
to exercise self-control. If he could wait, he’d get two marshmal-
lows! But the temptation proved too strong for little Timmy, so
he finally reached across the table, grabbed the marshmallow,
looked around nervously, and then shoved the spongy treat in
his mouth. Apparently Timmy and Henry are kindred spirits.
Actually, Timmy was one of dozens of subjects Dr. Mischel
and his colleagues studied for more than four decades. Mischel
was interested in learning what percentage of his young sub-
jects could delay gratification and what impact, if any, this char-
acter trait would have on their adult lives. Mischel’s hypothesis
was that children who were able to demonstrate self-control at
a young age would enjoy greater success later in life because
of that trait.