MARMELADE TEST
“Before achieving something, look if the present owner of it is happy”. This is not the only aphorism about the relativity of happiness and unhappiness. It is impossible to name an absolute, universal source of pleasure. It is all about our perception and attitude, which change many times during our lifetime.
MARMELADE TEST. This famous test had a revolutionary impact on psychology and pedagogics. Five-year-old kids are given out jellies. Then an adult says he will leave for a while. Those, who will not eat their jellies until the adult returns, will be given one more jelly. And those, who will eat them, will not get it. Most of kids eat their jellies. This is normal. But those, who do not eat them, have very good future perspectives. They have a high index of EQ – emotional quotient. They resist temptations more effectively and are able to achieve more in life. It does not mean the kids, who have eaten their jellies, will turn into those who cannot resist temptations. But the research results have shown a certain correlation. Those, who are able to refuse from an immediate reward, from a small momentary pleasure for a certain goal, for tomorrow’s joy, achieve more in life. The ability to trade off a small pleasure today promises a greater pleasure tomorrow. Before the “marmalade test” the main criterion serving for a person’s perspective estimation was IQ – intelligence quotient. But the research proved the relations with the jelly predicted the future better than solving intricate logical problems did. In other words, our ability to deal with joys of life can tell more about us than intelligence and analytical abilities.
UNFROCKED PRIESTS. Holding yourself in tight leash is also very dangerous even if you do it on your own will. Our mind needs positive emotions just like our body needs food. A person, deprived of a living wage, fades like a flower without water or is plucked and peddled. Doctors talk about a new and widespread mental disorder – anhedonia. At the same time some people spend too much time enjoying "simple" things not even trying to proceed to a higher level. No career growth is the least thing that may happen to them. A person who eats something all day or “is stuck” to the TV set is in a more serious danger. If he gets an unlimited access to these sources of pleasure, he will appear in the same position as a rat with an electrode in its head that kept clicking the button, which excited its “zone of pleasure”, until it died. Being sensitive to simple pleasures is not a vice. A person, opened for pleasures of being with a healthy desire to live, is very attractive. What is important is not to go down to passive pleasures, but to try to improve the talent of susceptibility, to be active while having fun.
One can become a gourmet instead of a glutton, an expert in wines instead of a drunkard, an artist, enchanted by the beauty of the world, instead of a TV screen contemplator… Another way is to overcome one’s fears. That is why a lot of middle-aged people discover they enjoy riding, diving, or skiing. It is difficult to fight with your own laziness and inclination for simple decisions. But getting over your own difficulties is the only way to learn to experience a real pleasure which will neither bore nor will turn against you.