By Shazad
“If I experiment enough, I get a deeper understanding.” Terence Tao
Have you ever felt something lacking in your life like a puppy/kitten, sports car, or a family cottage? Are you tempted to jump in and make the purchase tomorrow to fill that void in your existence? STOP! Don’t do it…yet.
Reflect and write down the reasons you really want something. What value do you think having this thing adds to your life? Can you achieve some or all of the gains through some other way such as renting a sports car or weekend cottage when you need to? How about playing with a relative’s dog or neighbour’s puppy to see what the experience is like? I strongly suggest you slow down and run a small experiment or place a ‘small bet’ to start testing the waters.
It can be as easy as spending a day with a cooperative neighbour and their pet so you can see what the experience is like to feed, walk and clean up after a pet. Do this a few times to make sure you don’t just have a ‘lucky' day’ where everything goes perfectly. You want to know what a bad day in the life of a puppy owner is like. What’s the worse thing they have experienced so far and how did they handle it. You need to know the good and the bad of taking care of another living thing such as a dog.
For objects like sports cars, vacation houses/cottages, and other expensive objects, you can run similar experiments. Ask a friendly relative or friend to use their fancy car for the day or the weekend. You could just rent your desired car for some time to see what it’s like to live with for at least 3 days to 1 week. Know what kind of maintenance and general care it needs as well as how it handles in different weather. Similarly for a property like a cottage. Ask to rent in someone else’s place for the weekend a few times. What is it like and how much does it cost them to actually own this? How many people do they have sharing the responsibilities of this property and can you afford it in your situation?
For many people, ownership is NOT the right answer for these desired things. You’re probably going to get as much or more joy from simply having occasional access to a sports car or cottage in a rental scenario. Your puppy fascination may be fulfilled by simply having exposure to a friend’s pets to play on the weekend or to take for occasional walks. You may also like to volunteer at a local pet shop or animal shelter. This saves you from the bigger responsibilities of actually owning and caring for the pet 7/24. The bigger the animal like a horse, the more time you want to give your experiment to truly realize what the responsibilities are in the day in the life of an owner. You may change your mind about ownership altogether.
“Don't be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
Don’t stop aspiring to do or have meaningful things in your life. Just make sure you truly explore the real experience in those things so you don’t take on too much and overburden yourself. Make sure you try small experiments when it comes to big-ticket items and life changes like owning pets. You’ll be glad you did. If you do move forward with actual ownership of these things, you’ll be much more prepared for that experience because you had a taste of what it can be like through your experiments. Isn’t that a better way to decide if you really want something?
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