the egg hunt is just as enjoyable as the chocolate
As parents to a 3 year old girl who, weirdly, loves chocolate (!?!) we naturally had to engage in the yearly tradition of going for an Easter egg hunt last Sunday.
She loved it!
Since then it’s been requested that we do another egg hunt pretty much every day, and most days we’ve just gone along with it, with greater or lesser effort; sometimes just hiding one small egg which she then gets to eat 1, other times stringing out the fun for longer and hiding the full accompaniment of eggs she received.
Now don’t get me wrong, I am pretty sure that if we refused to let her eat at least some sort of chocolate at the end of the hunt, there would be a lot of kicking and screaming, but apart from that it seems pretty obvious that the enjoyment of the hunt is at least approximately as much as the prize at the end.
This happens a lot in life, mainly around when you are purchasing something:
- For many people, just going to the mall or the high street and shopping itself creates just as much buzz (sometimes more so, just ask all those shopaholics!) than actually owning the product you end up buying.
- Online shopping can be just as bad – researching and buying some strange or techy item we’ve never owned before. I will admit, I really do enjoy the process of finding out all the tech specs, comparing products, and then comparing prices to find myself the best bargain!
- House porn – People tend to really enjoy watching TV shows about moving house or doing up their current one. Some people even make a day out of going to look at new houses in their area even if they have little intention of moving!
One area that we maybe do not think about as much as we should do is applying this theory to the long arduous march to FI and/or RE.
We would do well to consistently reflect upon this insight and savour the hunt in this case, rather than wishing our lives away for the chocolatey goodness of FIRE that could be a decade or two away.
So enjoy the hunt of FIRE as much as you will do when you get there!
Notes:
- Even at one a day I think she’ll still be eating them come August *rolling eyes emoji* ↩
Discussion (10) ¬
My first thought was “when did TFS Jr turn 3?!”. I’ve been reading/lurking for years but that time really has flown by.
My wife is a recovering shopaholic. She’s been in recovery for a few years now and gets her buzz from filling an online shopping basket, sometimes a whole day’s worth of browsing, then deletes it all. Seems like a colossal waste of time to me, but at least she doesn’t actually buy it.
Ah JC, that is nice to hear you have been following along for so long and can remember when TFS Jr was born 🙂
The time has flown for us as well!
Haha that is quite funny. Mrs T is kinda similar but she indulges by just buying cheap/second hand stuff (clothes) quite often instead, which I don’t really mind. I might tell her the “basket” trick and see what she thinks 😀
The Pandora’s box of chocolates needs to be avoided at all costs!
My 2 1/2 year old gets the occassionaly chocolate (not from me) and I really don’t like it.
I tell him that Daddy can’t eat chocolate as it gives me a sore tummy and that I eat apples instead. Maybe we should go on an Easter Apple hunt next year. 🙂
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I can see where you are coming from but on balance I bloody love chocolate and think it is awesome.
I don’t see why I would deny my child that pleasure, in moderation – admittedly Easter is just ridiculous though and is way too much for them.
An Apple hunt sounds fun as well though 🙂
Might be interesting to experiment to see how small the piece of chocolate can get before she tires of it or throws a tantrum.
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Great idea Chris!
Definitely going to see how long we can string out the eggs for haha.
I definitely agree with your point about enjoying the journey. The point that really resonated was around the online shopping though.
I love researching tech gizmos, but I find that I get almost as much enjoyment from adding them to my Amazon wish list as I do when I click buy. Even more so as I don’t then have a pang of buyers regret to have to contend with.
I get the pleasure of the egg hunt and the egg but none of the unwanted calories!
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Strangely enough, Mrs CFC said today that she has got to the point where she does not enjoy spending money. We’ve been working so hard towards the FI goal for so long, she now doesn’t feel right spending money even if we could afford it.
I needed to remind her that we need to find enjoyment in the journey as well. But what I understood from the response was that it wasn’t the journey itself that was the problem. It was how we needed to adapt to be on this journey. This has fundamentally shifted her mindset in a way that she feels guilt spending money. She thinks it’s good because it helps us save money, but the guilt feeling she can do without but not sure how. She’s not sure she will get back to the point of enjoying money once we are FI.
I have read about this before. Retirement planners and advisers talk of getting their clients to spend their money and how they struggle to convince them that they are no longer in the accumulation phase.
I will need to unpack this more with her.
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What a lovely point of view!
I sometimes get anxious and stressed about my current situation and I catch myself thinking “Wow I can’t wait for 5 more years to pass for FIRE”.
No! That’s nonsense! I have an amazing life now, why can’t I stop and enjoy it? I should. And I will. Thanks for reminding me.
In many ways I already have achieved my goals and my current life is pretty much what I imagine it would be when I’m fully done. Anxiety and stress is in our heads. Let’s just focus on enjoying the moment and our inevitable march to FIRE.
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