Delay Gratifications;–The Marshmallow Test was done in 1960 on hundreds of children. In this test, children were given one marshmallow and told that they could either eat this Marshmallow right now or they could just leave this on the table for some time, maybe 20-30 minutes, and get two marshmallows. Children would be given a second one so essentially kids were allowed to delay their gratification and not eat Marshmallows and then get double the reward. The experiment was extremely famous because the researchers followed these children for the next 40 years of their life and they found that pretty much all of the children that were able to delay gratification were more successful in all areas of their life. They were healthier, they had better social lives, they were more financially successful, they were less substance abusing and overall they were better humans and participating in society better. So don’t go for instant pleasures for a successful life. So the conclusion is that do not run for the immediate pleasures in life but to find meaningful purposes in life.
Eat the Frog;– Mark Twain says’ If it’s your job to eat the frog, it’s best to do it first thing in the morning, and if it’s your job to eat two frogs it’s best to eat the biggest one first’. So do your difficult task first. Otherwise, when you accumulate the frogs there will be so many frogs to eat and it seems dreadful to eat at a time.

Stoic philosophy:– I was introduced to Stoicism a few years ago when my friend tattooed stoicism on his hand. Zeno was on a voyage from Phoenicia to Piraeus and his boat sang along with all of his cargo. That single event turned that wealthy man into a poor in an instant. How would we react to such a situation when our entire wealth gets flushed into the water because of natural force? But instead of becoming sad, angry, and cheated, Zeno changed his mindset by reading the works of Socrates and other great philosophers. Zeno created Stoicism and became the father of stoicism. One small change can have an eternity impact. The change of mindset can cascade into larger and long-term impacts. The main idea of stoicism is acceptance and indifference. Stoicism is not becoming unemotional but it is to describe and understand the world for centuries. Stoicism allows us to process the negative emotions from negative experiences and turn them into unique perspectives. Perspective is everything. Some of the notable stoics are Epictetus, Seneca, and Marcus Aurelius. One of the stoic exercises is Voluntary discomfort. It is to develop an increased sense of gratitude within. Sleep on the floor of your kitchen, take cold showers in winter and eat something you do not like for a few days. This will help us to understand no matter how hard it gets, we will survive and potentially thrive if our mindset is right. We were taught at home, in school, and from the world we observed. We have to be in a certain way, we have to be the best at work, grab the best job, get promoted, and have house, car, and luxuries in life. Are all these pieces of knowledge need to be internalized? What happens if something bad happens which are beyond our control? So stoicism tells us not to hand our happiness and peace on external things but rather on our intrinsic value. According to Seneca that learning to live with less will create space in our life for the things that truly matter to us. There are four main virtues of Stoicism. They are Wisdom, courage, temperance, and justice. Wisdom helps us to separate between what is internal and what is external and the ability to choose our reaction to the things that happen to us. As Viktor Frankl said that between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. Courage to persist and resist. Temperance is doing more with less. Justice is the most important virtue. We all are born for each other, to do good to one another and not to ourselves. Logotherapy is based on the stoic principle. Humans are driven by purpose. To fix our problems with happiness, we must practice self-worth.No matter how tough time is, if we have purpose in life we can overcome the tough time too.