Week One...

OK, week one has ended...actually, it is day 10 of the challenge and I am happy to report that I have been able to stick with it thus far. I have bought nothing new for myself for 10 days. Here's a funny thing; one of the first sensations I had upon beginning this challenge was relief. Yes, relief. Without the option to buy, there was no stress about what to but or if to buy, etc. It was like the time I went vegan for 6 weeks (just to try it and see how hard it would be)...suddenly, sitting down at a restaurant for a meal was a lot less stressful because I had very limited options on the menu. I actually found that liberating as opposed to stifling. But that's just me. I think that this sense of relief I have with fewer options is connected to the fact that I am what psychologists call a "maximizer." This term was coined by psychologist Herbert Simon in the 1950s and it describes a person who, in some ways, is lot like a perfectionist in that they need to be assured that their every purchase or decision is the best that can be made. Thus, when faced with a decision (big or small) maximizers tend to consider all the alternatives they can imagine. This, according to Simon, creates a psychologically daunting task, which can become even more daunting as the number of options increases. The alternative to maximizing is to be a satisficer (now try saying that word quickly 10 times in a row!). A satisficer has criteria and standards, but a satisficer is not worried about the possibility that there might be something better out there. Another psychologist, Barry Schwartz, recently wrote a book entitled "The Paradox of Choice - Why More is Less." If you want to read a bit more about maximizers and satisficers, go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Paradox_of_Choice
Along the same line of thought I'd like to mention a book that I read a few years ago entitled "The Progress Paradox - How Life Gets Better While People Feel Worse" by Gregg Easterbrook. In the book, Easterbrook, drawing upon three decades of research, explores the perplexing and fascinating phenomenon that while almost all aspects of Western life have vastly improved in the last century, each new generation of men and women are actually reporting feeling less and less happy and satisfied with their lives. What's up with that? In one part of the book which I marked for some later reflection (like here :o), Easterbrook points out the following: "As ever more material things become available and fail to make us happy [I assume he means in the long term], material abundance may even have the perverse effect of instilling unhappiness - because it will never be possible to have everything that economics can create." And man, can economics create A LOT! So where does that leave us...you and me...the peons of this capitalistic society that we live in? Constantly craving, drooling over, and longing for something, just like Pavlov's dogs.
So at the end of week one, I am thrilled to report that even thought I did step into several stores and look at 'stuff', the drooling action was minimal, and the spending action was nil. And in fact, I am feeling a new found appreciation for the things I already possess...