Delayed gratification: The formula for wealth creation and happiness

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Mahabharata. He entered the Chakravyhu but couldn’t escape it.There is always a lag between the effort and its outcome. That is how nature is designed.

It follows a pattern. Sowing seeds does not immediately yield crops, and there is a gestation period between conceiving and delivering a baby. Present-day society is the outcome of the realization by early humans that delaying gratification brings reward and security in the future.

Early humans while hunting discovered by accident that not eating the entire hunt immediately and storing the excess would save them from going hungry when they would not find prey for days. They invented ways to preserve the flesh and meat from decaying. Now that daily hunting was not the sole purpose of living, as the hunt was stored for future consumption, humans learned to utilize their spare time in something more creative.

It wasn't easy to carry the stored food everywhere thus settling in one place made more sense. Storing food brought stability and gradually they stopped being nomads. Exchanging stored food for other essential items began.

The idea of barter was born. Humans started sharing and communicating with other tribes or groups. The delay in gratification gave birth to society, the institution of trust.

We started to control our impulses for our future and the benefit of others. The positive relationship between being able to delay gratification and reap its future benefits started getting established into ideology. Groups who shared similar ideologies started getting closer and clans were formed.