Do you defer gratification by doing it now or later? Part 2 in the Most Important Question series

You saw that there are four important questions which you can ask yourself as you make a decision. Those questions, from the first in this Most Important Question series, are:

1. Do I feel like doing it?
2. Do I want to do it?
3. Is it me?
4. Do I want the results that doing it will bring?

Which one do you Generally Choose?
Having reflected on these four questions, you chose and then signed the one you ask yourself in general. Your answer is neither right nor wrong, but they are important questions that you ask yourself in choosing what to do next.

Your answer gives the guideline you use, your default choice which you change as required in any specific circumstance. You break your guideline when appropriate, yet the secret of success is to do this with awareness, knowing what you do as you do it.

Why that Choice?
Yet why is the one you choose the most important to you? Why do you ask yourself that particular question most of the time? Again write your answer down. Your answer here can change your life, because it gives you more insight on what motivates you.

There's a crucial difference between the four questions that may not be readily apparent. Can you see what it is?

Your answer to the difference between the four questions may indeed be: No, there's not much difference at all! Yet the self sabotage mechanism is deviously cunning, and will pretend it didn't actually choose one over another, that any choice was just one of the possible options. Which is exactly why you need to write down and sign the one which you generally choose and why. Just do it.

What is the difference?
No answer is more valid than another. Yet it's also true that different answers give you different results, you'll end up in a different place. So, as always, it's valuable to know your destination.

There is a big difference between the questions. The first three focus on pleasure in the moment, the easy path. Yet the easy path is downhill - aka the slippery slope to hell. The fourth question focuses on the outcome, the result that you want in the future. That's the more difficult uphill path.

There's always a price to be paid, that's inescapable. The question is, when will you pay it? Today, or later?

The first three questions benefit you today, and you pay the price later. The fourth will give you the benefits later and you pay the price today. Your choice of your most important question is actually about deferred gratification.

The secret of success in life is to become more aware. Aware of your choices and of their consequences. You make a choice now and you can change your life by exploring the effect that choice will have on your future. As always, it's that crucial question: What do you choose?

© Copyright worldwide Cris Baker, www.LifeStrategies.net All rights reserved. Republishing welcomed under Creative Commons noncommercial no derivatives license preserving all links intact, so please +1 and share this widely!

Food for Thought
"Stop being a prisoner of your past. Become the architect of your future."

- Robin Sharma, lawyer, leadership consultant, author of The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari