Buy This Potent Mind-Gadget, Save More Money
Buy This Potent Mind-Gadget, Save More Money
How you can stay safely out of lifeโs unending rat-race.
The saturation is total. There is no place to hide. Come to my (not so) remote corner of the globe. There is no immunity. None anywhere.
Consumers are constantly being assaulted by more and more shining candy bars. You already know that.
That was the thrust of my discussion with a friend some time ago.
Ever innovative, the makers of these techno-marvels are forever churning out newer and faster gadgets. Hardly have you settled down with your new smartphone before another latest and brightest candy bar blows you away. And then you discover youโre a laggard, lost in the land of obsolete gadgets.
We all take these gadgets for granted. Who doesnโt?
But what was life like before these digital wonders started ruling us?
Even more unimaginable, what will modern life look like if these devices ever take lives of their own and go AWOL (absent without official leave) from us?
Doubtless, none of us would prefer going back to our old analog days. All the same, there are many flip sides to our living on this planet of an overabundance of gadgets.
Top on this list is that everyone is constantly at the mercy of savvy marketers. Many of us cannot resist the fear of missing out (FOMO). So we dissipate our money on new gadgets even when the old ones are still functioning OK and serving us well. My friend Boateng Sekyere wrote an excellent article that posits a cure for our irresistible allure of the shiny object syndrome.
Added to the shiny object syndrome is the fact that high-tech companies have policies of producing consumer goods that rapidly become obsolete and so require replacing. This is called planned obsolescence.
Manufacturers obscure this (sometimes) deliberate tactic from consumers by frequently changing product designs, using non-durable materials, or ending the production of vital parts needed for your devices to work.
Even if you are one of those extra-vigilant users who never get their phone screens damaged, phone batteries are prone to a quick death. Replacement batteries become scarce after two or three years. Even when you are lucky to get a replacement, every so often, it is never as reliable as the original unit that came with your device.
You may have escaped the planned obsolescence programmed into your device by savvy manufacturers. Donโt relax yet. It would be best if you still avoided the other formidable pitfall. This is the rat race of the hedonic treadmill. None of us is completely immune to this salient malady.
According to Psychology Today, the hedonic treadmill is the idea that an individualโs level of happiness, after rising or falling in response to positive or negative life events, ultimately tends to move back toward where it was prior to these experiences.
The hedonic treadmill explains the tendency of humans to quickly return to a relatively stable level of happiness despite major positive or negative event changes.
In real life, humans seek one pleasure after another. The hedonic treadmill explains why the delight or satisfaction, after any pleasant event, quickly wanes off and you soon return to your initial baseline happiness.
The corollary is also true for the pains you receive from negative events. The pangs of negative events get dull with time and life returns to or approaches the previous normal.
The hedonic treadmill also manifests in self-destructive dissatisfaction that makes some people always strive to catch up with the Joneses. By the time they get to where the Joneses were, the Joneses have moved much further ahead of them.
Listen, you can never catch up with the Joneses of this world. Why will you keep on chasing them when you can chart your own track through contentment?
Home Lessons
How then do you escape the rat race?
The day you stop racing is the day you win the race.
~ Bob Marley (1945โ1981)
Gratitude: You canโt overdose on it
Gratitude means thankfulness. It means showing appreciation for what you have been given, the life you have, and all the benefits you enjoy.
Gratitude also means that no matter how challenging lifeโs turbulence and travails, there are probably millions of people on other sides of the globe who are faring worse than you do.
Being grateful doesnโt mean you wake up daily with smug morbid satisfaction at othersโ misfortunes.
If you have a grateful attitude, you will never take anyone or anything for granted, because what you have today may be gone forever by this time tomorrow.
Psychologically, gratitude is associated with tangible health benefits. It helps you enjoy what you have. You are better able to handle lifeโs adversities.
Gratitude helps you build and strengthen all your relationships.
Contentment โ this too is good enough
Instead of whining over what youโre missing out on by not getting the latest shining gadget, contentment is the mindset that enables your enjoyment of what you have.
Some are so lucky and spoilt for choice that they get locked up in the self-destructive habit of always comparing themselves with others.
The story of two young American ladies aptly exemplified this. Each of them received a new coupe as a birthday gift. As reported, sadly, the lady who received an Audi burst into tears on sighting her more fortuitous friend who received a Mercedes Benz to grace her celebration.
The irony of this immature behavior is glaring to us all. Unfortunately, most of us are not any different from the aforementioned sulking lady.
Anytime a friend comes along with the latest Android or iPhone, many of us start scheming. The buyology in our genes auto-propels us to start craving for new devices or sending our 6 months โvery oldโ smartphones for premature trade-ins.
Wonโt you rather get off that treadmill?
Donโt just think about it.
For sure, youโll be better off.
So, do it.
The joy of sharing โ Itโs all yours.
Contentment and gratitude go together. And only contented people joyfully share what they have with less fortunate others.
Sharing with others doesnโt mean you have to go on self-flagellating guilt trips for not being able to help all those needy fellows. Neither does it mean you have to go about morosely with hunched shoulders - as if you must bear the weight of the worldโs problems on your shoulders.
You will, however, understand that in a world bedeviled by all forms of ills, crises, and pandemics, you donโt need to have all youโd ever need before sharing with others around you - far and near.
Back to the Main Thing
By all means, upgrade or change your devices if you need to.
My theme is this, on your next shopping spree, online, or at your nearest brick-and-mortar gadget store, do well to get a hefty dose of contentment - as your first purchase. Top off your last buy with another modest amount of contentment before exiting your hard or soft mall.
Contentment is the gadget that empowers you to exit the rat-race. And while others are engaged in that long tortuous โkilling me softlyโ contest, you will always end up keeping more money inside your pocket.
Need I tell you anymore that this simple but potent mind-gadget โ contentment โ is entirely free?
Of course, godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, so we cannot carry anything out of it.
~ 1 Timothy 6:6-7 (Holy Bible)
Thank you for reading.
This essay was originally published on Medium.
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