Truth or Consequence, say it aloud....
by Shiny. Bright. New. That's what we're drawn to. How many times have you heard it? "Hey, have you seen his new car? WOW. That thing LOOKS fast. That high spoiler is awesome."
But why is that? Is it just advertizing? Or is there something behind it, in our brains, that says - "you'll be happy once you get this!"
The thing about advertising (and good writing) is that it creates mental pictures. Example - k-i-l-l-e-r w-h-a-l-e . Now, what came to mind just then? It was a HUGE animal, right? You didn't just read the words. You had a mental picture. The sea, and this giant creature.
I wanted something, for a long, LONG time. I researched it, read forums about it, saved for it, hunted for deals on it, and finally, after months, bought it. It came yesterday. And you know what? It's not that great. My mental picture was a lot better than this.
All that energy - why? I thought about it for a long time. And I realized that I always forget that the fun is in the researching, the saving, the experience of enjoying that mental image. How can I keep from forgetting that? How can I remind myself?
My friend Ken used to say "you want to get your mind of something? Go visit the junkyard, get a wrecked car for $500, put it in your garage, and start working on it. It'll take all your time and energy - but at the end, you'll have something." I was thinking about that last night, as I looked at my garage. How great it would be to have a couple guys chillin in my garage with me in the summer, working on a old T-Bird or something.
You know what would be REALLY great? If I stopped saying "you know what would be great...". Because I'm constantly thinking if things were different, how much better it would be. Why couldn't I just sit in my garage, PRETEND there's a car in there, read books on those old T-Birds, read forums about people who fix up old T-Birds, and maybe dream? And just use my imagination?
AI Summary
8 Comments
spoilers are ghey
thanks.
*writes that down in case it ever comes up in conversation
when i see a high spoiler the mental picture i get is that the person driving it is delusional and thinks they are in a spaceship.
However I totaly agree with you on the main point of this journal, when you really build something up in your mind and you just can't wait to get it or to get somewhere or to do something, when it actually happens it's kinda a letdown, just because it was built up so much in your mind. Or it's kinda like 'ok, now what' because you focused for so long on this one thing and then it's like... what do i do next?
exactly. maybe it's good to save receipts. so you can return stuff.
hahaha perhaps....
Funny, i do this with vacations. I get all these scenarios in my head of what i think will happen & then of what i'll do in case it does happen & then it just seems that every single vaca. turns out to be totally boring but it's really not....it's only because i thought so much into it that it actually became boring to me cause there was No Way it could have bin the way i invisioned it...
hey, you can pimp my ride if you want
I'm curious as to what you did all this research on and ordered and now you're disappointed. I'm actually the opposite, I'll see something I like/want/must have now and I run to the store and get it. It's a problem that I've been working on for awhile. Once I get my mind set on something I'll do everything in my power to make it work. And it's not just with material things, it's with relationships, and a bunch of other things. When it works great, I'm happy, but when it doesn't I just get more hurt I guess. It sucks to put all that time and energy in something that later on you realize was a waste.
I've got over $1,000 of some stuff I got into a few years ago sitting in my room. I haven't touched the stuff, but at the time I had to have it, and before I was even finished with what I had I was out buying more. Now I'm being lazy and haven't put it on eBay yet. I'll get around to taht eventually. I digress.