Learn How to Control Yourself!    [07-12-2012] Are you good at controlling yourself? Sometimes it is not easy to control your emotions and behaviors. However, it is very important to know how to control yourself. According to many studies, children who can control themselves are more likely to achieve better grades and social success! There was an interesting experiment about the importance of self control. American researcher Walter Michael conducted the famous marshmallow experiment at Stanford University in the 1960s. He put 4-year-old children in a room by themselves and placed a marshmallow in front of them. He said to the children that “You can have the marshmallow now or you can wait 15 minutes and get 2 marshmallows.” He then left the room and observed the children’s behavior. The results of the experiment were pretty interesting. Michael surveyed the same children to see how they were going 10 years later. Interestingly, he found that the children who had resisted eating the marshmallow had better school grades and social success than the children who ate the marshmallow straight away! Also, the children who could control themselves were less likely to have problems with their weight. It is not easy to control ourselves in front of delicious food. Even if you are not good at self control for now, don’t worry. Good news is you can train yourself to be more patient! This is because self control is like a muscle. So it can be strengthened with the right mind set and lifestyle. It may feel uncomfortable or difficult at first. But the more you do it, the easier it gets! Using rewards can be really helpful to help strengthen self-control. If you manage to control yourself in a certain situation, give yourself a nice reward. Using penalties can also be helpful. Just like the carrot, the stick also works! Giving yourself a penalty for bad behavior can help you better control yourself.     출처: 어린이 영자신문 키즈타임즈 (www.kidstimes.net)