Self-Control Precedes Success

“Self-control precedes success” was what one of my school teachers always used to say. The real meaning of the adage used to fly right over the top of my head. It wasn’t until I learned about Walter Mischel’s famous marshmallow study that I finally understood what she meant. “The ability to delay gratification is critical for a

Grit: the Power of Passion & Perseverance

In every article I have read about the secret to success, it always comes down to this – to truly be successful, we need more than just brainpower. To be more specific, we need some brains – Malcolm Gladwell puts that figure somewhere around an IQ of 120 – and then we need something extra.

The Chocolate Test

When G1 was little, I read about the success of the Marshmallow test for predicting future success. I decided to try it out on G1 but since he wasn’t familiar with marshmallows at the time, I swapped them out for Kit Kat instead and dubbed it the Kit Kat Test. The test was done on

Rethinking Education – What Do Our Children Really Need to be Successful?

Academics is Not Enough “Study hard and get good grades so you can get a good job” – this was the mantra of our parents because it was the formula that worked in their world. But the world we live in is constantly changing – the world we grew up in is vastly different to

Developing Self-Control for Young Children: Play Hide and Seek

In Nurture Shock, Bronson and Merryman reported that self-control was one of the most accurate predictors of future success. Self-control is defined as the ability to restrain one’s emotions, behaviour, and desires in order to obtain some reward. To determine the level of self-control children had, the famous marshmallow test was employed. 4-6 year old

Helping Children Become Successful in Future: Self-Control

In the late 1960’s, Walter Mischel, a professor of psychology in Stanford, conducted a series of experiments on children that are now famously known as the “marshmallow tests” (you can read the full details of the study published in Developmental Psychology). The marshmallow test was a study on self-control in children age 4-6 years old.

Activities to Help Children Improve their Focus and Self-Control

According to Ellen Galinsky in Mind in the Making, children need focus and self-control to help them achieve their goals. Unfortunately, focus and self-control isn’t something they naturally develop as they grow up, it is something they need to practice in order to get good at it.  The following are some activities recommended by Galinsky