Do we value things less when they're in our possession

 

Something you've always wanted, lays by your side now. A relationship you thought you'd never find is possibly happy and healthy. The bed you sleep on every night, what if i told you is going to taken away now?

I've been thinking about value recently but more specifically about losing it. How we over value things we don't own, how we take for granted the things we do, and how value is perceived differently by everyone. I fell down this psychology rabbit hole, said hello to the mad hatter and climbed back out and here's what i've come to know.

The first thing i understood (and was very relieved to find out) is that, it's definitely not just you. I'm a person who questioned myself thoroughly about why i don't value things as much as i did when i didn't have them in my life. But the fact is, it's basic human nature. Adaptation. Meaning i've lived with it enough in my life that it has just become an everyday thing now. And the reason you value something too much beforehand is simply because you don't own it yet.

I came across a fantastic quote which read, 

"People say you don’t know what you’ve got until it's gone. Truth is, you knew what you had, you just never thought you’d lose it"

Which I find very true. You do know what you have but you don't think about losing it very often. And for me, when i think about losing something, it adds more value to it. I've tried to put this into practice by asking myself one question. How would my life be if this object or person was not in my life? This takes me back to the times without my glorious people or innovative technology and gives a much different, fresh perspective and renews my value towards them. 

I owned my first smartphone when i was 17 and looking back, all i could do before i got it was want want want this highly valuable piece of technology. But now 3 years later, having it seen being under intensive surgery due to my own doing, the value I feel towards it seems questionable and very much taken for granted because I'm not treating it as well as someone without it would, righttttt?!. But what I've come to know is I've just adapted to having an expensive phone in my pocket and only when i find it not there is when mini-heart attacks happen. Seeing as it is simply human nature to adapt, other than just trying to find appreciation by making a shrine for my phone and worshipping the hell out of it everyday, just simply feeling fortunate to have it seems more appropriate. And if you've found yourself questioning losing value in something you once valued overly, don't worry, it happens.

Hope you can reignite value in your possessions as well as the people you know and love in 2021.

Happy New Year. May 2021 allow air travel. 

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