Will Power or Focus Power?

Posted on July 10, 2011 by a moment with god — Leave a comment

Influencer: the power to change anything

Good Morning, God!

I’ve been listening to the book, Influencer for some time now. It’s filled with fascinating information that overturns many of our common assumptions. Yesterday it overturned the “Marshmallow Studies.”

For years, God, I have heard about the “marshmallow” studies — the ones where you put ONE marshmallow in front of a child and tell him he can eat it now, but if he can resist eating it while you leave the room to run an errand you will give him TWO marshmallows. This simple “Ability to Wait” is an excellent indicator of the child’s future “success.”

This “Will Power” factor was assumed to be somehow inherent, part of a person’s character. You had it, or you didn’t. And, if you didn’t have the ability to wait — that was just too bad.

I found that sort of sad, God. So I was overjoy to learn that what looks like “Will Power” seems to be having just one small skill. People who can WAIT for the second marshmallow do so by SHIFTING their FOCUS OFF the marshmallow. Some children made up games to play — others moved so they couldn’t see the marshmallow. They distracted themselves. They didn’t just sit and stare at the marshmallow and exercise “Will Power.”

Better yet, when the researchers took the One Marshmallow Kids and put them with an adult who modeled the skill of waiting through changing focus — almost all of the kids picked up that skill after one exposure.

Now, God, this seems like a very pivotal piece of information — an incredible important point. But HOW am I going to make use of it in MY life? Hmmm. I will do a Focus Inventory after Church!