Page 144 - The Power to Change Anything

Surpass Your Limits 133

the marshmallows by covering their eyes, turning their chairs
away, or resting their heads on their arms. Some even created
their own diversions by talking to themselves, singing, and
inventing games with their hands and feet. One clever kid stood
and traced the mortar seams in the wall with her finger. In
short, delayers invented clever ways of turning aversive and bor-
ing waiting time into something that was more like a game.
When Mischel taught other children these same tactics—
and thus helped them take their minds off the rewards and
place them on something else—subjects routinely increased
their ability to delay gratification. In similar studies where sub-
jects were given specific tasks that would help them earn their
long-term rewards, subjects who focused on the tasks as
opposed to the rewards delayed longer. In contrast, individuals
who glanced at the reward the most often were the least per-
sistent. Researchers also found that distracting individuals by
having them focus on the cost of failure, or thinking bad
thoughts, did not enhance delay.
Finally, asking subjects to employ “willpower” by directing
their attention to tasks that were difficult, aversive, or boring
didn’t work. Despite the fact most people are convinced that
individuals who show poor self-control merely need to exert a
stronger will—demanding that subjects dig down, suck it up,
or show strength of character—research found the opposite.
Telling people to hunker down didn’t improve performance.
The far better strategy was to transform the difficult into the
easy, the aversive into the pleasant, and the boring into the inter-
esting. We examine methods for doing exactly this in Chapter
9. Suffice it to say that when industrial engineers began to find
ways to help employees and others make their tasks easier and
more pleasant, leaders learned that they didn’t have to contin-
ually harangue people to stick to their unpleasant or boring
tasks. And when leaders began to learn how to measure and
focus on short-term goals, it took the pressure off having to con-
tinually motivate people into hanging on until the end.