How are you on waiting Cosmic Reader? Do you do it well? Are you able to wait to get the prize you have been wanting or do you need to experience your reward – now, regardless of what it is, even if it isn’t your prize? Are you an immediate or postponed gratifier?
Most people are immediate gratification-ers rather than postponing. This is comparable to ‘a bird in the hand is worth more than 2 in the bush’ thinking. But in many cases, it is a fallacy. “Settling” for mere immediate gratification never compensates for the prize you really wanted. Many times people keep trying for the prize but the lure of immediate causes them to settle before it can be attained.
Perhaps a more salient question is… how long are you willing to wait till you reach the prize? How important is the prize to you? Are you willing to postpone and continue ‘working’ in order to attain your goals? None of those are easy answer questions and yet they are critical to the ultimate decision of accepting now rather than waiting till later.
An equally salient issue is – is the prize attainable in the first place? Not always, in starting out, do we know the end from the beginning. Not always do we know we can actually attain the prize – it is something hoped for but it is an unknown. So if we have a compromise ‘prize’, is it worth taking it rather than pressing on?
Is the prize worth the time, energy, effort needed to attain? Or….. is the easier route your preferred method of action? Difficult questions. Difficult answers.
