Self-Control: The Need of the Hour

‘The Marshmallow Test’ by Walter Mischel is a good book to read for those interested in understanding self-control and learning how to master it. Indira Ananthakrishnan gets into further details of what it means.

- Indira Ananthakrishnan

Train travel has always been a thrilling experience for me. As a child, I remember grabbing the window seat before my sister or brother could do so. Sitting there and watching the world go by was fun. At a later date, while travelling by train from New Delhi to Chennai, the changing scenario of the landscape held my attention. It moved from lush green fields to fallow ones, from dacoit-ridden valleys of Chambal to civilisation, from rocky land to jungles, and so on. When the train stopped, so did the change. Now, at my present stage in life, when I think of change, it is from a totally different perspective. It holds the entire gamut of life.

The change is from birth to growth to decay to disease to death. This is a change that has to happen. Nothing can stop it. It is, however, not the kind of change like the earlier mentioned ones. It is no thrill or fun, except, perhaps, at birth and growth. Further to that, whatever happens steadily and surely is not easy to enjoy. Then, what do we do? Develop willpower to accept the change. This cannot happen in a day. It has to be built into the system over the years in more ways than one. An extraordinary experiment to illustrate the capacity of this power was conducted not so long ago at Stanford university in USA.