"What, then, determined self-control? Mischel’s conclusion, based on hundreds of hours of observation, was that the crucial skill was the ‘strategic allocation of attention.’ Instead of getting obsessed with the marshmallow—the ‘hot stimulus’—the patient children distracted themselves by covering their eyes, pretending to play hide-and-seek underneath the desk, or singing songs from ‘Sesame Street.’ Their desire wasn’t defeated—it was merely forgotten. ‘If you’re thinking about the marshmallow and how delicious it is, then you’re going to eat it,’ Mischel says. ‘The key is to avoid thinking about it in the first place.’"
—The Marshmallow Test (New Yorker)
I think that there are two keys to being a successful adult:
1) distract yourself and avoid the tempting things that are bad for you
2) focus on doing the unpalatable things that are good for you.
I struggle most with 2). Ideally, I would distract myself by focusing on the hard things that I should do. Putting down the marshmallow I can do, but then picking up “Ancient Greek for Dummies” is a bit much.
Also ideally, these skills would be explicitly taught in school.
