Blog Post: Can’t Window Shop Forever, Get Up and Go Get It

Photographed by: Allyssia G.

Have you ever gone out one day just to get some air with no intention to buy anything? 

Picture this, one day you’re walking down the street and you pass your favorite store. You walk past the window, stopping, and taking a moment to observe what’s going on. You see people shuffling through the aisles, looking through the clothes on the racks. You even take note of the new knick knacks they’ve placed around the store. 

You take a mental note of everything you are going to go back and get. You know if you go inside your bound to get something, even if you don’t need it. You want to take your time to decide if you need to buy anything. Whether it’s for an event, birthday, a gift, just because, or maybe you just don’t have the money to get it right away. 

You go on about your day completely forgetting about your window shopping earlier. You finally get home and take a moment to relax. You pour something to drink and grab your favorite journal. You sit and take a moment to think about and write down all things you wanted from the store.

You decide the things that you do want because some things you just don’t need and don’t have space for. So, you make a plan so that you can work towards getting the things you’ve set your eyes on. 

Making a plan sounds silly, right? I mean, for a little window shopping. Why would a plan be needed? But what if you waited about a month or two before going back to the store. You may find several outcomes: one, the items are no longer there; two, the items that are there are damaged; or three, it’s more expensive than the original price. 

So think about it, what if you were to make a plan? Your own way to make sure that all the things you want are there. That nothing is damaged, it’s the same price or even cheaper. 

Eventually, you get to a point where you can’t window shop all the time. You have to go in, take your time to look around, and buy yourself something. If you get used to window shopping and just taking a look, you’re never going to have anything you want. 

You have to get to a point where you don’t window shop because then you start looking at what everyone else is doing. You start wondering what people are shopping for. You try to figure out if they are window shopping or buying. Or what they're looking to get. 

You find yourself liking something they pointed out, losing focus on all the things you wanted. Or you might go and get what they wanted only to find it’s something that you don’t even need. Then you go back to get things you wanted only to find that they are no longer there. 

You leave upset thinking to yourself, I shouldn’t have gotten distracted. No longer wanting to deal with the outside world. You find yourself at home and take time to recollect yourself. 

After sitting and thinking about the choices you made, you stop beating yourself up. You do notice that you’re tired of window shopping. You’re tired of hoping that what you want is still available to you.

You understand the things you want will not wait for you. That someone can get it before you and have no clue that you wanted it. You see that you can’t get distracted by what other people are getting. 

I know what I want and I’m going to get it, you say to yourself. 

After sitting in your funk, you decide you’re no longer going to window shop your life. You take your time to decide on what you want. You can’t really start to plan if you don’t know what you’re planning for. 

You know that you can’t get mad at someone who has something you don’t have because you were stuck window shopping. They put in the work needed so they can get what they want. 

It’s time for you to get out of your head and stop window shopping your life. You know what you want, you made the plan. Now’s the time because who knows if it’s going to wait for you.