So I was really curious, I hear stories about people who like to spend money.
When they have money in their pocket, they have a tendency to spend it.
When they receive their salary, they have a desire to quickly spend it.
There's no sense of delayed gratification.
Now for money, I don't have much desire to spend it. There's very little that I really want so money in the bank or in my wallet, I don't have a higher desire to spend it regardless of how much there is inside the account.
So I was wondering to myself. How does it feel like to WANT to quickly use up the money.
The thrill of no delayed gratification. The feelings of... the item is there, I HAVE to use it up.
I was really thinking very hard in any kind of scenario which I ever felt that way...
And it dawned upon me...
I actually have this occurrence quite often.
I have a weakness for some food...
For example... a pack of chips, assuming it's a big packet.
My wife is quite ok to open a pack of chips, take a couple of pieces, and seal it up to eat another day. To her, it's like just enjoying the flavour of the chips today, and a bit tomorrow. It's not about whacking the chips all in one seating.
Whereas for me, once the bag of chips is opened, there's no TOMORROW?!
What do you mean wait for tomorrow, the chips are opened, it's gotta be finished today, or so I tell myself. I just want to finish it on the same day, regardless of the size of the bag.
(This is only for opened chips, if the bag is sealed, I am absolutely ok to leave packs of chips for other days/weeks.
I don't like all kinds of chips, like... I don't like Lays, I don't really like keropok, so I don't really have a desire to quickly finish these.)
Or if my mum leaves some fishballs or siewmai on the table/steamer for everyone to snack on throughout the day when I visit her on Saturdays.
Throughout the day?! No way!
I'll probably keep picking the food left around and it would probably be gone in 2 hours. It wouldn't last the rest of the day.
This really got me thinking, cos it's a close simulation to how other people feel about money.
You may think it's quite a frivolous comparison, cos the effects of eating what's on the table or a pack of chips versus using up one's salary is very different.
Yes, the effects are different, but the feeling is the same.
The feeling that I have, when I see siewmai on the table is very much... the siewmai is on the table asking to be eaten, why do I wait til later? Of course if I got 2 siewmai later I'd probably wait for later, but it's likely that there would be less siewmai on the table later cos someone else would have eaten some. So it's better to just eat it as early as possible.
And that's when I started understanding the desire to spend.
Cos it's somewhat similar.
Some people see money in the bank account or wallet and they just want to spend it. It's calling to be spent. Why wait til later?
Well, in the case of money, the effects are greater, but humans aren't good at estimating the future and so many people don't plan too far ahead.
For money, there's actually quite a lot of reason on why one should wait til later. But that's not the point of today's mental exercise.
The thing is... everyone has some form of weakness.
Even workaholics have a weakness, cos they want to finish the work today when some things can be done tomorrow.
It's like leaving something undone and somehow the feeling is... you just gotta finish it...
Whether its household chores... Some people are OCD and they can't stop cleaning the house, they just keep moving, sweeping something, wiping something, etc...
Or it could be some kind of food like me. To me, food is on the table, it needs to be eaten.
Or work that's left undone...
Or money that's left unspent...
Or that Korean drama that you just gotta just "chiong" finish...
It just feels wrong just leaving the "task" alone and waiting til another day to do it.
And different people feel differently for each different "task" and scenario.
So ALAS, I am now a bit better able to understand the desire to spend money.
The mental state of... why wait til later when you can have it NOW!!!
Now I understand, cos I myself have instances when I just want to have something NOW!!!
I don't want to delay gratification. I don't want to wait til later or tomorrow.
I now understand the struggle it is to curb desire. Cos leaving that pack of half eaten chips on the table is just so wrong, it's just asking to be eaten. Why do I want to eat a few pieces today and wait to finish it slowly throughout the rest of the week when I could just eat it NOW!!!
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