It still feels surreal to me that I swapped my days of writing code for long days of learning anatomy and working with cadavers. Even though I still spend an insane amount of time in front of computer screens (mostly studying), my biggest realization has been that medicine is just one big game of delayed gratification – saying no to temporary pleasures for future rewards.
As a software engineer, spending 8 hours a day writing code yielded results very quickly, especially during my time as a frontend engineer, and it didn’t take long before I would see the financial reward for my hard work. Studying medicine, in contrast, is vastly different. Eight hours of studying barely scratches the surface of developing competence. Don’t even get me started on the rewards. You may pass a test, or be able to answer a question about a specific diagnosis, but you will not see much of a financial reward until much later in your career. To study medicine – or do anything that requires long training periods – one must embrace the principle of delayed gratification.
Delayed gratification is your ability to resist immediate reward in favour of a better reward that will come much later. It is the power to say no now so that you can say yes later, when it matters more. Throughout the semester, I had to practice delayed gratification in so many ways: saying no to obviously terrible things like doomscrolling, enjoyable things like reading a novel or travelling, and saying yes to long hours of studying. And the biggest sacrifice of all, saying no to being employed right now in favour of building my career in medicine. I know this will all be worth it in the long run, but practicing delayed gratification has many benefits along the way.
Practicing delayed gratification not only demands sacrifice but also offers a unique opportunity for growth and self reflection. When you don’t see immediate reward for your work, it forces you to re-evaluate your why. In the waiting and working period where there is no reward, you may start to question if this is what you really want for yourself. And questioning is good, because it reinforces the decision you have made. Through questioning, you either become more convinced that this is what you really want or gain clarity on what you don’t want.
Delayed gratification also teaches patience, perseverance, and discipline. These qualities will show up in many areas of your life and develop you into a much better version of yourself. In the famously cited marshmallow experiment on delayed gratification, it was observed after many years that the children who were willing to wait for their reward of a second marshmallow went on to achieve higher SAT scores and better social skills among other things. Through the lessons they had learned on delaying gratification in little things, they had become masters of self-control and perseverance in the pursuit of their dreams. If you can practice delayed gratification in one area of your life, like studying instead of watching a movie, then you also stand a better chance of saying no to an impulse purchase in favour of saving up for the things you need.
As much as practising delayed gratification has immense benefits, finding the discipline to say no when you want to say yes can be hard. How then can we make it easier for ourselves? The answer lies in the reward. An interesting part about the marshmallow experiment is that the children who practiced delayed gratification had been conditioned to do so by a reliable reward system. They were happy to wait for the reward that was promised because their patience had been rewarded in previous situations.
Creating this reliable reward system is up to you. Keep the promises you make to yourself at the end of each delayed gratification period. Make it fun and interesting; make it something to look forward to. For me, I reward myself for studying hard by indulging in a good book at the end of the day, or planning fun weekends where I wander through cafés, go shopping, or clear up my ‘watch later’ playlist on YouTube. And beyond these short term rewards, I constantly visualize my life as a doctor at the end of these few short years as my ultimate reward.
If you have a goal that you’re working towards and are intimidated by all the hard work that it involves, I want to recommend taking the delayed gratification approach. Break your goal down into smaller bits and attach an enjoyable reward for completing each task. In the process, you’ll grow in patience and discipline while taking steps towards achieving your goal. Just as I’ve traded immediate comfort for the long-term dream of becoming a doctor, you too can make small daily sacrifices for the future you’ve envisioned for yourself. In the end, every small ‘no’ you say today builds the foundation for the grand ‘yes’ you’ll celebrate tomorrow.
