For example, when I’m about to make an impulse buy, I’ll start to think “is this really worth $20 to me?” but then I’ll think “I better not do the cost-benefit calculation, because then I won’t buy it.”
So don’t buy it! If you are thinking that doing the calculation will cause you not to buy it, you have already concluded on some level that you are better off not buying it.
Listen to that side of yourself. It will only be hard the first few times, then you’ll see yourself rejecting the impulse buy before you have to agonize.
You do see the difficulty though, don’t you? When I’m about to make that impulse buy, I’m in impulse mode, and this mode seems to be sabotaging any attempts by calculating mode to take control. Saying “don’t buy it” is just like telling someone with a weight problem “stop eating so much.” It’s extremely difficult to muster the willpower to pull that off, and my efforts are probably better spent elsewhere anyway, like studying for finals.
There are methods that work, of course, and they all seem to involve preventing impulse mode from taking control in the first place. If I don’t go to the video game aisle, I won’t be tempted to buy the latest incarnation of Civilization. If I don’t go into Wal-Mart, I won’t be tempted to buy a lot of things. However, these only go so far, and sometimes I just want to look… then I just want to touch… then, dammit, impulse mode has taken control again and I walk out $50 poorer with a game I don’t have enough time to play anyway.
So don’t buy it! If you are thinking that doing the calculation will cause you not to buy it, you have already concluded on some level that you are better off not buying it. Listen to that side of yourself. It will only be hard the first few times, then you’ll see yourself rejecting the impulse buy before you have to agonize.
You do see the difficulty though, don’t you? When I’m about to make that impulse buy, I’m in impulse mode, and this mode seems to be sabotaging any attempts by calculating mode to take control. Saying “don’t buy it” is just like telling someone with a weight problem “stop eating so much.” It’s extremely difficult to muster the willpower to pull that off, and my efforts are probably better spent elsewhere anyway, like studying for finals.
There are methods that work, of course, and they all seem to involve preventing impulse mode from taking control in the first place. If I don’t go to the video game aisle, I won’t be tempted to buy the latest incarnation of Civilization. If I don’t go into Wal-Mart, I won’t be tempted to buy a lot of things. However, these only go so far, and sometimes I just want to look… then I just want to touch… then, dammit, impulse mode has taken control again and I walk out $50 poorer with a game I don’t have enough time to play anyway.