You buy something you wanted for a long time and after a week it feels ordinary.
Take this situation apart. Each piece goes in one box: yours, or not yours. There is no third box, and almost nothing falls in one piece.
Yours
- Whether you expect the same of the next thing next time.Here is the whole exercise. That the shine wears off is a law; counting on it being different with the next object is the choice that keeps the pattern running.
- Whether you use it or only own it.Many things are bought to have rather than to do. What you do with it is the only place value is still available.
- Whether you work out what you were hoping to feel.Under almost every desire for an object sits a desire for a state: calm, standing, freedom. Asking that is yours and saves you a purchase next time.
Not yours
- That the excitement fades.Habituation works that way, for everybody and for every object. It is not a fault in the thing and not a fault in you.
- What other people make of it.If their reaction had to supply the pleasure, you effectively bought it for them. Their verdict is beyond your reach and always was.
- That the money is gone.Spent is spent. Regret over a decision already made is the most expensive second purchase available.
The reasoning. The disappointment after a purchase is nearly always blamed on the object. Look at the columns and the object sits on the left while your expectation sits on the right. The Stoics would say you did not buy the wrong thing, you expected the wrong thing, and that is good news, because only the second can be adjusted.
- Freedom is not achieved by satisfying desire, but by removing it.Epictetus
Nearby situations
More on this topic: Desire and comparison