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Success Within a Marshmallow Success, victory, achievement, triumph. These are the main goals of most humans’ lives.
But in modern times, success’s meaning has deteriorated to just the pursuit of wealth. And in the marshmallow
experiment conducted by Dr. Walter Mischel, being a high‐delayer is connected to achieving success. Nevertheless,
success isn’t just about getting high SAT scores or having a high paying job. There is much more to it than that. Success
is not something people often recognize or reach. For example, J.K Rowling, a world renowned author did not wake up
one fine day and decide that she was successful; she reached out for it and worked for it, even through tough times. My
definition for success is that you have reached a point in your life where you have toiled through the tough, and now
you are happy and content with your life. When you are successful, you think each new day is a treat for you. You are
worry‐free, satisfied and perfectly at ease with the people around you. Success does not have to necessarily be making
large mounds of money or becoming valedictorian. Though these things will aid you in reaching success, they aren’t
what’s necessarily important in life. "Don't confuse fame with success. Madonna is one; Helen Keller is the other." (Erma
Bombeck) The author Erma, clearly agrees with my view on success. Just because you have become rich, famous, and
the like doesn't mean you are happy. Wealth is something that can be attained easily, for example: winning the lottery.
Success, on the other hand, is something that has to be worked for and has to be developed. Success does not equal
money, it equals contentment. In my opinion, being a high delayer will not make your success guaranteed. In
the article "DON’T! The secret of self‐control" by Jonah Lehrer, Craig Weisz, one of the experiment subjects was a low‐
delayer; his sister, Carolyn Weisz, was a high‐delayer. The article reported, “She [Carolyn Weisz] attended Stanford as an
undergraduate, and got her Ph.D in social psychology at Princeton.”( Lehrer, 2)Then, they compared her to her brother.
“Craig, meanwhile, moved to Los Angeles and has spent his career doing ‘all kinds of things’ in the entertainment
industry, mostly in production. He’s currently helping to write and produce a film.”( Lehrer, 2) In both quotes, the
author, Jonah Lehrer, is trying to prove Dr. Walter Mischel’s theory of how being a high delayer brings you to success.
They even refer to Carolyn as a “textbook example of a high delayer.” (Lehrer, 2) I disagree with this notion because
although Carolyn may have a high‐paying job and many degrees to her name, doesn’t necessarily mean she is happy and
successful, if you use my definition. Craig Weisz has done his share too. His name and filmography are listed on the
Internet Movie Database, and it is shown that he has produced seven movies, acted in two and was the editor of one.
This is quite a resume, and he may have made much money with this. However, even though we have seen where both
siblings are today, none of that tells us their level of satisfaction or their level of success. There are many ways to
achieve success, and everyone has their own individual path. In the article, Dr. Walter Mischel teaches the children how
to deal with the temptation of the marshmallow. Some ways of dealing with the tantalizing situation are imagining the
marshmallow as a cloud or a picture in a frame, as if it doesn’t exist. My strategy for achieving success is “keeping your
eyes on the prize.” In other, words, I would not sit in that confined room and glower at the marshmallow, I would
instead visualize myself with two marshmallows and try to envision their gooey insides, their sweet scents, and how
happy I’d be with two marshmallows instead of a sad, single marshmallow that would be a reminder of how I failed to
carry out the task. This is similar to the method Dr. Walter Mischel had taught, because in both you are comparing two
visualizations. In both strategies, they are comparing the visualization of a reward with something that you have no
desire for. In the tests that the scientist sent out to the subjects, there was an exercise in which you were instructed to
press the space bar when the subject sees a smiling face. Later the directions are reversed and the subjects were told to
press the spacebar when they see frowning faces. Many scientists believe that this exercise is tied to the marshmallow
experiment, “ 'These are powerful instincts telling us to reach for the marshmallow or spacebar,’ [John] Jonides says.
‘The only way to defeat them is to avoid them, and that means paying attention to something else.’ ” (Lehrer 5)
One might think that paying attention to something else is the complete opposite of keeping your eyes on the
prize. But my strategy is not asking the subject to stare at the marshmallow, it is asking them to think of how happy
you'd be when you have two, and therefore distracting yourself. My strategy is asking you to focus yourself on your goal,
no matter what. The following quote; "Obstacles are things a person sees when he takes his eyes off his goal."(E. Joseph
Crossman) is a way that would be used to explain my strategy. In the experiment, the temptation of the marshmallow is
the obstacle, and unless you look beyond it, you may not be able to resist. Success is beyond wealth, or worldly
things. It is happiness and satisfaction. And being a high delayer doesn't secure success either. A low delayer has just as
much of a chance as a high delayer when it comes to the race for success. And to actually achieve success, one must
distract themselves from obstacles and focus themselves on the prize, one must set a goal and let nothing hinder their
path towards it. Self‐control is tested on how well you focus on the tow marshmallows and not the obstacle in front of
you. You have to train yourself to ignore it. Now when you are faced with a path to your goal, and it is littered with
obstacles what are you going to do? Are you going to let one of those obstacles ruin your chances on completing your
path to triumph? Or will you ignore them and keep on pushing on? If you do the latter, you will one day come to a time
where you are satisfied with what you have done and finally be successful.
Comments: It is clear that you are very interested in the essay question and that you are willing to explore this in your
essay. You advance the claim that success is often misunderstood to be the same thing as fame, but these two are
fundamentally different. Success requires patience, willingness to endure difficulty, and the ability to be happy with the
achievement of personal goals. This is an interesting claim which is supported by your focus on Carolyn and Craig Weisz.
By your analysis of the information that Jonah Lehrer provided about this sister and brother, who were a high delayer
and a low delayer respectively, helps to complicate the distinction between high and low delayers that Lehrer discusses
in his essay. The structure of your essay works quite well, connecting the different issues that you raise in each body
paragraph in a concise and effective manner.
Grade: B+