Ups and Downs

Ups and Downs

 

We all experience ups and downs. Whether we’re talking about jobs, relationships, energy, motivation, happiness - life is often about moving from ups to downs and so on without losing faith.
If you’re experiencing an up, I hope you are enjoying the moment. It must feel special. It must feel great. Enjoy it. Do more. Make the most of it. Spread joy, love and happiness. Be careful about over promising in a good mood while you’re at it. Laugh !




If you’re on a down, I hope you are keeping the faith. As dreary as things seem when we go through downs, they don’t last. And the best things about these downs is that they keep us humble and grounded. Of course, we don’t like or want them for sure... but what would life be if we ever given everything we liked and wanted? Look around. You probably have everything you need. Now what do you think at this moment?

And if you’re in the between, that’s a great place to be too. The next up or down will arrive soon enough. And when that happens, do remember to come back and read this post.!!  :)

Happy weekend folks...

On Cookies, Radishes and Self Control

On Cookies, Radishes and Self Control 

 

This week's book learning draws inspiration from 'Switch' by Chip & Dan Heath.

A group of hungry student volunteers were led to a room that smelt of chocolate chip cookies.
There were 2 bowls - one with cookies and the other with radishes.

Half the group were asked to eat from the cookie bowl and not touch the radishes. The other half had to do the opposite. Researchers left the room for 10 minutes to bring about temptation and studied the situation with hidden cameras. They found that, despite looking longingly at the cookies bowl, the radish eaters stuck to their word - that was will power at work!

A couple of hours later, they were called for a second 'unrelated' study about problem solving and given complicated unsolvable puzzles. And the results were telling.

The cookie group i.e. the untempted students spent, on average, 19 mins on the task making 34 attempts. The Radish group, on the other hand, gave up in 8 mins, after 19 attempts on average.

Self control, as this experiment dictates, is exhaustible . Exercising it is like doing bench presses at the gym - the first one is easy and then it gets progressively difficult.

I think the big question here is - Are we wise in our use of our exhaustible self control every day?

Happy week, all!