I was ordering Christmas gifts online when I noticed that I was going out of my way to find the cheapest options, regardless of quality. The moment I noticed this, I realized that it was the old me going at it again. The new me doesn't have such a poor mindset as to buy gifts based on price. She buys whatever she wants for her loved ones.
I also realized that I've come a long way from the 2021 mindset of living a great life, regardless of the cost. And I mean in the wrong direction. I've started saving my life again. Saving my time, resources, energy, attention... for later.
Without knowing what that later is, where or when it is, or if I'll ever get there.
I had to take action to fight back, so I came up with a great set of action steps for myself to combat this saving mentality. Once I notice I'm doing it (noticing it is not guaranteed - be grateful if you do), I'll do three things:
- Quickly, without overthinking it, I'll do the thing I should do: buy the full-priced, high quality gifts I was planning to buy, and do it before my analytic old-self brain starts an argument about the money.
- Remind myself that I'm not the kind of person to save life for later. I know that mystical later is not guaranteed.
- Remind myself that the last time I went all in on life regardless of the cost (2021), I came out ahead financially.
There will always be more money than I could ever spend. There's no need to count cents and spend my infinitely more precious time and energy trying to save something as abundant as money.
Luckily, with some important purchases approaching, I'll get my chance to splurge and thus enforce the better mentality soon enough!
RK
