I have this rule of thumb. Whenever I see or want to do something and the question, “Should I do it?” pops in my head, I wait two weeks to see if it’s still on my mind. If, at that point, I still want to do it, then I do it. This strategy works well because it keeps me from making rash decisions. It works in specific circumstances like when I want to buy something expensive or want to push myself to do something that I could easily talk myself out of . So how does this play out in my head, you ask? Well I’ll give an examples.
I’m a financially conscious person, but I do like nice things. In my early twenties, I had two guilty, expensive pleasures: purses and sunglasses. Spending money on these things have grown less important as I’ve gotten older and it has been over six years since I’ve spent over $40 on either. Well recently I decided that I was going to buy a pair of designer sunglasses as a treat to myself. I decided this about a month ago and I haven’t really thought about it since. So that’s that. It’s not on my mind, so I’m not buying it.
Recently, two things have come about that made me really excited. In both situations, I created a master plan in my head for what to do. Within 24 hours, I had slowly talked myself out of doing either and didn’t take action on either. So here I am two weeks later and still thinking about one on a daily basis. So today I’m taking action. It doesn’t cost any money so I’m not losing anything by taking action. It just forces me to step outside my comfortable zone and take a big risk. Actually they both do. The two weeks has passed for one and I’ve decided to take action. Let’s see what I decide to do with the second.
Update: I bought the sunglasses! I know I said that they weren’t on my mind, BUT I found a cute pair on a designer discount site and could not pass up the opportunity to get a pair 65% off. It’s the best of both worlds. Yes!