Posts Tagged ‘delayed sense of gratification’

A Delayed Sense of Gratification: “An Attitude of Gratitude”

Monday, January 19th, 2009

 

As I said during one of my earlier shows (Check my Archived Shows as they are edited commercial free.), I got by for years earning a very meager living in order to become a psychologist.  One of my early lessons with my mentor was facing my impoverished sense of delayed gratification.  It was underdeveloped.

 

For years I lived out of card board boxes and my mattress (no box spring or frame) was on the floor.  A cardboard box with a towel over it served as a night stand.  Even though I probably qualified for Food Stamps and had a lot of seemingly tremendous unmet needs, I would motivate myself via my self talk.  And I would ask myself each day:

 

“What can I do without today?”

 

“What can I live without today?”

 

You’d be surprised what you can do without for one day that day, today.  I learned during extremely hard times to enjoy little things and dwell on them.  Rather than focus on what was wrong or what I didn’t have, I learned the peace & positive frame of mind achievable just by having an attitude of gratitude for the seemingly simple things in life.

 

Let’s see . . .   I slept in peace last night.  I’m having three meals today.  I got a shower and my clothes are clean.  Such simple things as dwelling on the beauty of the day, the smell of the roses if you will, became very important to me. 

 

From a dear one I learned to admire and enjoy the finer things, such as automobiles, of others from a distance.  Not so much wanting one but just enjoying the fact they were around and I could see them.  Just enjoying those for their beauty and reminding myself that I didn’t have to own an expensive car in order to enjoy the beauty in someone else’s instilled a wonderful peace.

 

I hope you, too, can develop a sense of delayed gratification, an attitude of gratitude and enjoy your life as much as I have mine.