debbiebradleyAKA: Get over yourself already!
Why spend £1000 on a computer, when you can pick one up for £100?
Why spend £100 on a pair of boots when you can pick up some that look the same for £10
Well… you know why?
BECAUSE IT’S NOT ABOUT THE MONEY!!!!
It’s about the value.
Yours.
This is about you valuing yourself.
It’s about getting what you value in life.
Take what I wrote about in this blog post.
That whole situation was based on a notebook.
That’s what started the whole thing! The conversation, the change, EVERYTHING!
The belief and feelings around ALLOWING yourself to buy something that costs more.
And not because “it’s expensive” – NO, that’s not what it’s about! It’s about the VALUE that item has for you.
It’s how it makes you feel, how you feel about the things you have in your life, and what they represent.
It has no bearing on whether or not the item is expensive. It’s about you stepping up for something you want, or settling for something less than what you want.
Take, for example, a pair of shoes, or boots (I wear boots more than shoes so that works for me)
I could go out there and spend £100 on a pair of Timberland boots – I have done. Or I could go to the local cheap footwear store and buy something that looks like Timberlands for a fraction of the price.
I could “save some money” in the moment, but what am I really doing?
I’m saying I don’t value the item.
I’m saying I don’t value myself.
I’m saying I don’t deserve them.
I’m also wasting money cos that £100 pair of Timberlands will last me 10 or so years (the last pair lasted nearly 12 years and I wore them near-daily, and I wore them to death – literally!) whereas the cheap pair may last only a fraction of that. They might last a year or two before the stitching comes loose, or the sole wears away, or some other thing would happen to them and I’d have to replace them. It’s false economy! Just because something is cheaper in the moment will probably end up costing you in the long run.
Another example; my computers.
I’ve had so many, and one year, I went out and bought myself an Apple MacBook Pro. To some it’s just a visual statement, but here’s what I know – that laptop cost me £1000, it was a big spend for me at the time, and I could have spent a fraction of that amount on any other laptop. But that laptop lasted me years before I started having any issues with it. In fact, I still have it now, I bought it in 2008, and it still fires up and it still works. Unlike all the other laptops I’ve bought over the years that have lasted a couple of years before they were obsolete.
I remember being in the computer store when I bought my last laptop and the sales guy asked me what I’d had before. When I told him it was a MacBook Pro he said “so why are you buying this? That’s like going from a Ferrari to a 10-year-old Ford Fiesta” He was right. That mid-range laptop started having problems in less than a year, and I ended up going back to Apple for a MacBook 2 years after that because I was tired of the constant battle to get the other laptop to do what I needed. I tried to save myself some cash by buying an alternative to what I wanted, and it ended up costing me in the long run. Not just in monetary terms either, I lost years of work from that old laptop, pictures of my children growing up, videos, things they’d created, all because the backup didn’t work and the hard drive failed. It was just another reminder that I should have gone with what I wanted the first time.
Anyway, I think that’s enough tales.
I’m sure you’ve found yourself in these situations. Maybe you haven’t even realised it, but when you look at the things you’ve bought or wanted to buy, you’ve had that voice in the back of your mind that’s baulked at the price “it’s how much?!” or you’ve ushered yourself down to a lower-priced item because “well, it’s practically the same thing”.
Except it’s not.
Yeah, it might look similar, work in a similar way, do similar things… but it’s not the same.
And you don’t feel the same about it.
You probably get to a point where it becomes a constant reminder of the other thing that you did want.
Or you might, like I did, end up going back and buying the original and regret not buying it sooner.
Heck, this isn’t even limited to big expensive purchases, it can be something small, like I said earlier and in this previous post; it could be a notebook or journal.
Sure you can buy one for less than a £1 and has lined paper, and you’ll scribble out some notes on it and be done.
Or you could buy the soft feel notebook, with a pocket in the back, maybe a page marker, or a band holding it closed for £8, £12 or even £15 because it looks good, feels good, it has thicker, higher quality paper that doesn’t bleed through, and when you write on it it feels like more, something worthwhile, something important.
Or you could go all out, buy the £30 leather-bound journal, that reminds you of old libraries and classic books, the original values before these cheaper imitations took over. That feel like something worth holding onto. Something of true value.
Look, I know not everyone is into stationary the way I am. To some, it might seem a bit weird, but I know this;
A journal can change your life.
Not just with what is written inside it, but because of the VALUE it brings to you, and the VALUE you bestow upon yourself and what you want in life.
So yes, the problem with having expensive taste is that you probably do need to get over yourself.
You need to get over the idea that you don’t deserve it, can’t have it, or shouldn’t want it.
You need to get over this idea that you should settle for less than EXACTLY what you want.
Even if what you want is something as simple as a slightly fancy notebook.
P.S. Speaking of notebooks and journals; I’ve spent years and probably hundreds of pounds trying to find “the perfect notebooks and journals” to write down my thoughts and ideas. I’ve finally decided that it’s time I give in and accept that the only way I’ll be fully satisfied is if I go out there and create them myself.
I’m currently in the process of sourcing and creating the most perfect journals and notebooks. I envision a whole range in my future, and I can’t wait to share them with you!
