You are listening to the Take a Break podcast with Rachel Hart episode 307.

Whether you want to drink less or stop drinking, this podcast will help you change the habit from the inside out.

We're challenging conventional wisdom about why people drink and why it can be hard to resist temptation.

No labels, no judgment, just practical tools to take control of your desire and stop worrying about your drinking.

Now here's your host, Rachel Hart.

All right everyone, welcome back.

Today we are going to talk about marshmallows.

We're going to talk about the marshmallow test today and how it connects to drinking.

And by the way, if you're listening, you're like, oh, I know what the marshmallow test is and I definitely would have failed.

Don't worry, keep listening.

For all of you who are like, what is she talking about? I will explain.

So there's a pretty famous study that has, you know, in some different versions been around since the 1960s, which basically the idea was researchers put young kids around the age of four or five in a room, put them in front of a marshmallow and said, listen, you can eat the marshmallow now or if you wait until I come back to the room, you can have two marshmallows.

So the idea here was, let's see if we can test a child's innate ability to delay gratification and use self control and access discipline.

And then the researchers wanted to follow up with the kids years later.

How were they doing? How are they doing academically, financially?

Did they have weight issues? Did they have mental health problems? Did they struggle with addiction? Right? The idea was, gosh, if a four year old struggles with the kids,

struggles with the marshmallow test, if they have a hard time delaying gratification or accessing self control and discipline, then it's not a good sign for their future.

It felt a little bit like if you failed the marshmallow test, you're kind of doomed. You're going to struggle with a lifetime of under achievement.

So the reason why I'm talking about this test today is because there's so much focus on discipline and self control when it comes to changing, changing our drinking.

I just need to be more disciplined. I hear that all the time.

And we also have this idea that discipline and self control, not only are they the keys to change and future success, right?

I think that's been pretty widely adopted. But we also have this belief that discipline and self control aren't inborn trait.

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