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Success Tip – Delayed gratification is the secret to success
By arbutuscoaching | January 18, 2010
The most successful people in any society are those who take the longest time period into consideration when making their day-to-day decisions. This insight comes from Harvard University’s Dr. Edward Banfield.
After studying many of the factors that were thought to contribute to individual financial success over the course of a person’s lifetime, he concluded that time perspective was the primary factor that took precedence over all others. What Banfield found was that the higher a person rises in society, the longer his time perspective or time horizon.
People at the highest social and economic levels make decisions and sacrifices that may not pay off for many years, sometimes not even in their own lifetimes. People at the lowest levels of society have the shortest time perspectives. They focus primarily on immediate gratification and often engage in behaviors that are virtually guaranteed to lead to negative consequences in the long term.
People with long term perspectives are willing to pay the price for success for a long, long time before they achieve it. They think about the consequences of their choices and decisions in terms of what they might mean in five, 10, 15 and 20 years.
What this essentially underscores is the importance of having a vision for yourself and for your life. Leafs get blown whichever way the wind blows, but leaf blowers blow the leafs. And I know we’d all prefer to be leaf blowers than leaves.
In the My Best Year Yet Phone Group Coaching Program, which starts Feb. 2, we cement your vision, so that it’s crystal clear. This helps make decisions easier, which in turn makes you more focused and effective. And according to Dr. Banfield, more likely to reach financial success. More information about the program can be viewed here. A teleseminar about the program is being held Jan. 18 and 25 at 6 p.m. PST. To get the call in number visit the seminars page at http://www.arbutuscoaching.com/seminars.php
Take Action Challenge
Start taking a long term perspective in every area of your life. Think of where you would like to be in five years time and begin taking steps to get there.
Arbutus Coaching – Growing People and Possibilities
250 388-6108
Kathy@ArbutusCoaching.com
http://www.ArbutusCoaching.com
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What do you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?
Mary Oliver, poet
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