“The Snooze Button, Karl Marx and Deferred Gratification and the Coming Fall”
Dear Bank of Prairie Village Community ~
I will be honest. I fight a daily morning battle with the snooze button on my phone.
It is a battle, that just recently entered my life. Back when there were normal alarm clocks, the jarring alarm sent my body shaking and my ears ringing. Turning it off and knowing I would not hear it for another 24 hours was a daily victory.
The ringing in my ears would not abate until I managed to get the toothpaste on the brush and started scrubbing my teeth. I think the tooth scrubbing managed to cancel out the morning ear ringing.
Then I started using my phone as an alarm clock. I awake to the Bagpipes at the beginning of the Country line dancing song “Copperhead Road” by Steve Earle, about three generations of running mountain-made moonshine.
It should be enough to get my rump out of bed. However, as I go to turn it off, my thumb inevitably hits the “snooze” button instead of the off button.
I realize I have just bought myself nine more blissful minutes of dreamy sleep. At that point in time, regardless of whether the dream is good or bad, it seems like the most important thing in the world is finding out how the dream ends. After nine minutes, the dream continues and the entire process repeats itself for another nine-minute interval. Nine minutes becomes eighteen minutes which becomes twenty-seven minutes.
I awake 30 minutes later, disgusted with myself, late for a business breakfast meeting, without a clue what the dream was about, whether it was good or bad nor how it ended. Clearly not the way to start a productive day.
Feeling angry at myself, I spend the rest of the day trying to reinforce the merits of the two words haunting me since college. Specifically, “Deferred Gratification!”
I first learned the concept of Deferred Gratification my freshman year in college in one of those throwaway elective courses ~ Sociology.
The professor, I decided was a fledging closet Marxist. I realized if I could slip in a few complimentary words about Karl Marx in every paper or when called on in class, I was sure to get an “A” ~ assuming of course she never found out I was in a fraternity. I desperately needed the “A” so I even kept a change of clothes in my bag, before going to her class ~ so I would look more the part of a budding fellow social revolutionary!
I think I started every paper for her with the Marx quote ~ “If there is profit in it ~ the capitalist will sell to the proletariat the rope they will use to hang him!” (I think of this quote often today when reading about trade deals we make with China and the offshore manufacturing jobs so many of our American companies have sent to that communist country.)
Realizing this Marx line worked well with my Sociology professor, I started using it with equal success with my Economics professors. I truly must give Karl Marx credit for helping me get A grades in so many liberal arts classes ~ That, however, is another story. Back to Deferred Gratification.
The concept is pretty straightforward in terms of Sociology and Psychology People who have the willpower to forego instant gratification for longer term, more desirable goals will be more successful than those that don’t. Think of it as compounding interest as opposed to immediate consumer purchases. In the long run which are you better off with?
During that first college semester I was going through pledge training and on the swimming team. The swimming blocked out mornings and afternoon classes, with classes in between. As a pledge I was locked down every night from 7pm Sunday night until 6pm Friday evening, with pledge class cleaning duty on Saturday mornings.
With the windows open in my fraternity house, I could hear all the laughter and merriment at The Wheel Bar, just across the street ~ but of course I could not leave the nightly enforced pledge training study hall.
I imagined all the beautiful freshman coeds across the street at the bar ~ and all the guys free from study halls entertaining them. I literally felt my freshman college social life was withering on the vine, and every coed would be taken by the time pledge training and the swimming season ended.
In short, I was in a severe “pity-party of one.” It was on one of those pity-party nights, staring at the Sociology textbook when I saw the words Deferred Gratification. I underlined the term several times as frankly these were two words of which I was unfamiliar.
The concept of putting off something immediately pleasurable or rewarding, in exchange for something even more rewarding in the future on that miserable night seemed reassuring. I struggled with how it could benefit my current situation. Eventually I conceded to myself if I could get good grades in my first freshman semester, I could reward myself, 1) by making my grades and not getting sent back to Salina at Christmas break, and 2) I could slack off my sophomore year and make up for my lost freshman year.
I stared at the merriment coming from the bar across the street and realized at least some of those guys over there would not be making their grades, and would be sent home, leaving their college flames behind looking for new replacement boys to take their place. I took joy in the thought the left behind coeds would be available eventually.
I began thinking about various ways I could defer instant gratification into more rewarding things in other parts of my life. For example, if I actually studied during nightly study halls, I would have more free time on the weekends. If I did not drink myself blind on Saturday night, I could be more functional on Sundays. The possibilities seemed limitless.
Eventually, I noticed the successful guys in my fraternity, adhered to the same “Deferred Gratification” mindset ~ although they called it “Self-Discipline” ~ which was more fashionable in the athletic training rooms and study halls.
I am not going to say I was an immediate disciple of the “Deferred Gratification ~ Self-Discipline” mindset. No, I’ve been born with too many impulsive Irish genes to become a full adherent. At least, however, I was beginning to understand the consequences of impulsive behavior as opposed to waking up wondering how in the hell I got into the messes I did.
Eventually, I did become an adherent to best-selling self-betterment legend Zig Zigler. Zig had two primary and often counter intuitive Self-Discipline proverbs. 1) To be successful, you must do the thing you most don’t want to do first. 2) If you are paralyzed by not wanting to do anything, then do the small stuff you can quickly achieve, congratulate yourself when finished and move on to the next thing you can achieve.
“Doing the thing you most don’t want to do”, Zig said was the hardest thing and you would curse him for years for this advice. He was right. I cursed him often. “Doing little things which you could finish”, gave you a mindset of success and winning. Eventually, your mind would craze those small victories of productivity.
How does this all relate to my battle with the snooze button? Clearly the snooze button is instant gratification. I want to roll over in the warm bed and back into my dreams.
However, the disgust at being late to get up and get going will stick with me for the whole day. Better to turn off the damn alarm, stumble in, brush one’s teeth and feel good about yourself for the whole day than instantly enjoying 9 more minutes of dream time ~ for a dream you will quickly forget and damn throughout the day for making you late.
Why write about this now? Because we are soon going to set the clock back and go into the Winter months. If we can’t get out of bed, in the Spring, Summer and Fall, then the Winter months will be even more brutal to conquer this snooze demon. Now is the time to master control over the snooze button ~ not in the deep of winter.
The Fall Season with its brilliant array of foliage colors is truly amazing. The Autumn morning rays are brilliant as they bounce off the multicolored leaves. The cool breezes are invigorating. Together, let’s ignore the snooze button and enjoy the wonders of the amazing season before us!
Dan Bolen ~ Chairman
Bank of Prairie Village
“The Bank of Prairie Village ~ Home of Blue Lion Banking” ~ cited March 2020, April 2021, April 2022, April 2023 and April 2024 by the by the Kansas City Business Journal as one of the “Safest Banks in Kansas City for Your Money.”
Small Batch Banking ~ Once Client at a Time.
