Day 25- I kind of like clouds, they look like fluffy marshmallows

Whoever said that money doesn't buy you happiness obviously didn't like travelling, buying books, snorkelling in crystal clear waters or the taste of organic apples.

When people learn that I am originally from Portugal they ask surprised: ‘What are you doing in cold, raining Ireland?’  That is a good question, I reply.

Coming to Ireland was a mistake; the European Union messed up my application for a pos-graduation programme to study gipsy communities in Hungary and instead sent me to Ireland to work with emigrants. This was over 12 years ago, I've left three times to live in different countries but the spell always finds a way to bring me back (suggestions on how to break spells genuinely accepted).  

I long for warm summers, mild springs and autumns and the sense of seasons that lasts longer than a few hours and preferably not all in one day.

Can I live in a nice cottage by the beach in Portugal and still have enough money to travel and buy everything I want or the cottage comes with a chain to the sun and not enough money to buy books (the country is quite bankrupt at the moment).

Regular doses of sun and a life short of cash or enough cash but no sun, that’s the question? I am not good at choosing and I challenge whoever said you can’t have it all; I don’t want to abdicate one for the other.

After today’s promotion it appears that I've sold my soul to the grey skies for another season but if I use it wisely to save some cash, grow the business, write books and expand, in the near future that may buy me a residential area at the sun.

How willing are you to sacrifice instant gratification for a long term goal? 

Are you ready for your marshmallow test? Walter Mischel is an American psychologist best known for his ground-breaking study on delayed gratification known as “the marshmallow test.”

Walter seated preschool-age children at a table with a marshmallow and, before exiting the room, presented them with a choice: either (1) to ring a bell to call the researcher back and, upon his return, consume the single marshmallow or (2) to wait until the researcher’s voluntary return and be rewarded with two marshmallows. While some children were unable to wait a full minute (“low delayers”), others were able to wait up to 20 (“high delayers”) by employing various distraction techniques (e.g., covering their eyes with their hands, singing, and turning around in their chairs) to avoid looking at the tempting object.

Upon repeating the test, Mischel advised the children to think of the treats as something inedible (e.g., cotton balls), which dramatically improved impulse control. Follow-up studies, conducted later in life via self-report, further showed that high delayers achieved greater academic success better health and more-positive relationships. His research demonstrated not only that willpower can be learned but also that it seems to be “a protective buffer against the development of all kinds of vulnerabilities later in life,” as Mischel concluded, thereby implying that self-control is key to both academic and personal success.

  

For now I realise that I kind of like clouds, they look like fluffy marshmallows and make beautiful skies.