A Unique Teen Leadership Blog!
Have you ever heard the term delayed gratification? Some people say that this soft skill is probably one of the most important social and emotional skills that one should learn if they really want to succeed in life. Unfortunately, not everybody fully appreciates the full over-arching power of delayed gratification– as evidence of it being called a soft skill instead of a hard skill. We all know how valued the academic skills in reading, writing, and arithmetic are, since they are frequently found on IQ tests. Unfortunately, however, many of us tend to overlook the softer social and emotional skills that fall under the umbrella of emotional intelligence.
It is very important for all of us to know how to read, write and compute. However, if that is the only thing that we know, then I think we are going to find it difficult to get ahead. Just as important as our academic skills are the talents found on the other side of the success latter. These other talents are represented in our social and emotional skills. And one of the biggest social and emotional skills is having enough awareness, intelligence, and control, to wait for, and to continue to work toward a big goal without being immediately rewarded.
Just remember that it was a lot of hard work that built this great country that we all live in today. The work of visionaries, who were not afraid of long, long hours, and the many years it takes to truly build something that really matters without any immediate reward is what honestly built this country. Remember, great Americans like Thomas Edison and Henry Ford were not rewarded before they accomplished their goals.
Now please share with the rest of us how you plan to use Granddaddy’s secret of delayed gratification.
Thanks for your time,
Daniel Blanchard
Author of the Granddaddy’s Secrets book series
