Go Without

If you really care about some aspect of your existence, some feature of your life that you feel is core to your comfort, then you should care about getting the best version of that thing, whatever it is. And if you care about getting the best version, then go without it for a while.

People are so terrified to go without their basic comforts for even ten minutes that they will often suffer the very worst version of that thing because to switch means disruption.

You’ve met these people; maybe you’re one of them. People who can’t stand to be single for a week so they’re constantly in terrible relationships. People who poorly engineer their lives so they can’t survive a month of unemployment and so they’re endlessly in terrible jobs. People who buy money-pit car after money-pit car because Heaven forbid they walk and take the bus for a few weeks.

Going without for a while will show you what it really means to you. It will let you map the true aches of its absence and so you’ll know which aspects are really important and which ones are shiny advertising. It will make you less susceptible to the dire, desperate need of that thing, and so you’ll be in a position of strength in negotiating for the return of its superior version.

If you even return it at all! The best part of a deliberate period of abstinence is that sometimes you realize you didn’t need the thing at all.