If you look around a room, you’ll notice how people today prefer small rewards now rather than big rewards later. For example, many choose to scroll instead of work or push off deadlines in class. This shows how instant gratification is affecting our brains. It makes it hard to work towards difficult tasks and to have perseverance. Scrolling through apps like TikTok gives you that instant feeling of dopamine because it’s easy, while studying for a test is boring and gives you a result later. Brains that are used to this will avoid the challenging stuff on purpose.
The infamous Stanford marshmallow experiment by Walter Mischel proved this idea clearly. In the experiment, children were given the option of getting a marshmallow immediately or wait and receiving two later. Many children didn’t wait, illustrating the lack of desire for delayed gratification.
The brain also builds patterns based on repetition. If you repeat a thought process or habit, the more automatic it becomes. This is why it can be hard to get your brain to work with you after you’re used to putting off important things.
People also tend to procrastinate not because they’re lazy, but because they want to avoid negative emotions. Research by Timothy A. Pychyl shows that tasks are often delayed when they feel stressful, boring, or overwhelming. Instead of completing the task, people usually choose to do things that give instant comfort. This means procrastination is more about managing emotions than managing time.
Additionally, there is something called the intention-Action Gap. It’s when people know what they should be doing, but their actions don’t match up with their intentions. This is because the brain doesn’t prioritize long-term responsibility over comfort.
In conclusion, the reason for the lack of perseverance is due to the growing desire for instant gratification, development of strong brain patterns, a focus on emotions, and the tendency to prioritize comfort over long-term goals.
