Satisfaction Not Guaranteed

     We face endless choices.  Sausage or bacon for breakfast. 
White bread or rye.  Spend now or save for a vacation or
retirement.  Go to college, or go to work.  Go bowling, or go to
a movie.  Why do we choose one option instead another?

     Individuals always choose the options they believe will
be the most satisfying.  One may expect more satisfaction from
giving than from spending.  He will choose to give.  The
individual who expects more satisfaction from sleeping than
from going to work will skip work.  Perhaps when making the
choice he didn't consider that skipping work also meant no
paycheck.

     Often our choices don't turn out as we expected. 
Satisfaction isn't guaranteed.  When making choices all we can
do is give it our best shot.  The more we know about the likely
consequences of our choices, the more likely we will be able to
choose the most satisfying options.

     The more distant the satisfaction we seek, the greater the
risk that we will not achieve it.  Planning and saving for
retirement is a bigger gamble than planning and saving for a
vacation next summer.

     When choosing between immediate satisfaction and
distant satisfaction some people usually lean toward the
immediate satisfaction.  Others are likely to choose the more
distant satisfaction.  The ultimate pursuit of delayed satisfaction
is sacrificing immediate satisfaction for anticipated satisfaction in
the hereafter.

     Sometimes others make choices that baffle us.  They
appear to make choices that will certainly lead to less
satisfaction rather than more.  The explanations for these
puzzling choices are quite simple.  One possibility is that what
the chooser finds satisfying is very different from what we find
satisfying.  The other possibility is that the chooser has either
more or less understanding of the consequences than we do.

     The difficult question is, Why do some people appear to
choose distant satisfaction rather than immediate satisfaction? 
Why does one person choose the delayed satisfaction from going
to work while another opts from the immediate satisfaction from
skipping work?

     Instead of asking why individuals sacrifice immediate
satisfaction to pursue delayed satisfaction we should first ask,
Does the person who chooses to go to work sacrifice present
satisfaction?  Clearly, the worker sacrifices the increased
satisfaction he could have gained by sleeping late and spending
the rest of the day fishing.  Has he merely traded these
immediate satisfactions for the more distant satisfaction from the
things his paycheck will buy?

     The answer is "No."  The worker has also gained present
satisfaction from the anticipation of the things his paycheck will
buy.   The immediate satisfaction from anticipation and other
aspects of his choosing to work outweighs the immediate
satisfaction sacrificed by going to work.  Some of those other
immediate satisfactions from going to work might include
avoidance of guilt about skipping work and avoidance of worry
about how to pay future bills.

     Thus, when we choose distant satisfaction over immediate
satisfaction, we aren't really sacrificing immediate satisfaction. 
We are only substituting one immediate satisfaction for another.

     Individuals who seem always to be short sighted and
choose the immediate satisfaction simply don't gain as much
satisfaction from anticipating future satisfaction as does the
seeming more farsighted person.  To change this condition the
"short sighted" individuals need to increase their ability to gain
present satisfaction from the anticipation of future satisfaction.

     One example of this involves the common problem of
losing weight.  The anticipated immediate satisfaction from
eating now has a way of overpowering the present immediate
satisfaction from anticipating weighing less in the more distant
future.

     To overcome the urge to eat, the individual needs to
focus on gaining immediate satisfaction from anticipating the
future satisfaction from weighing less.  Dwell on visualizing a
thinner future and focus on the satisfactions it will bring.

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Copyright 2012
Albert D. McCallum
18440 29-1/2 Mile Road
Springport, Michigan 49284