Wednesday 12 November 2014

procrastinating pleasure




Does that sound familiar to you? You buy the most amazing, beautiful, chic and expensive pair of trousers - and then it collects dust in your wardrobe as you don't wear it. You are sparing it for a special occasion! Don't wanna ruin it, waste it, desecrate it, waiting for that special moment that in most cases never comes.
One day in the future we want to wear it and realize it now looks frumpy, doesn't fit anymore or has been devoured by moths. And then we have should to put it on ebay or donate it to a charity shop we probably will put it back into our wardrobe mausoleum in order to be prepared for that precious moment in the future when our body-shape will change and this particular style will come back into fashion.

In the past I have had moments of clear-sightedness and put some of my shirts into a bag ready for the next Oxfam shop and what did my husbann say? "But I thought you like this one!" No, actually I don't like it at all but I have been wearing it so often in order to give it some wear so I will finally be able to get rid of it. How stupid is that???

I have noticed this irrational behaviour in many other aspects of life as well.
I buy a book. It is by one of my favourite authors, hyped in the media, about a really exciting topic, I'm longing to immerse myself in it - only to put it on the shelf to read it later. So I have something to look forward to. Reading boring stuff instead to get it out of the way with and achieve some feeling of achievement.

Using up endless piles of cosmetic testers while the expensive high-end product perishes away.
The lovely slice of soap from Lush shrivels away in the drawer while I'm working through my stack of hoarded hotel soaps. Not watching the film you recorded months ago so I work my way through important but utterly uninteresting to me films...or "Farmer need a Wife".

Psychologists come forward please - what makes humans behave in such an irrational way?
Why can't be resist the nice things but then stop ourselves from enjoying them?
Probably one of the most first world problems of them all...

3 comments:

  1. Hm. Nein. Ausgerechnet das stelle ich bei mir nun nicht fest :D Ich bin eher der sofort-sofort-sofort-Typ und kann es kaum erwarten die neuen Sachen zu tragen oder mit dem Buch zu beginnen :)

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  2. story of my life ! liebe grüße :-)

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  3. good question... i manage to avoid with everything but books now.

    maybe we're just used to keeping special things for special occassions - like special sunday meals ?

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