It's time to turn shopping upside down and right side up!

Purpose: To provoke you to rethink the way you go shopping.

I hate shopping.  I hate walking around from shop to shop looking for things I want or need.  After a mere couple of hours of shopping, I am drained of energy and feel like a deer in headlight.  Shopping is a severely disorientating event for me.

I ask myself, why? Why does shopping drain me? Why does it sap my energy?  Lastly, am I alone in this, or can you relate?

Here are some of my thoughts on the matter.  You may agree or disagree.  Either way, I hope for this to provoke thoughts into the way we shop.

Walk into two houses. 

Time to use your imagination

Imagine yourself walking into two houses. Both houses are the same, they differ only in their contents.

Both houses greet you with high ceilings, wooden floors, copious amounts of space, large windows creating space for sunlight to stream through.  They differ only in their contents.

You walk into the first house, immediately you notice how uncluttered it is, there are few objects.  Just like the other house, there is a high ceiling, wooden flooring, large windows with sunlight streaming forth.  Save from a couch set and a few simple pictures the room is bare.

Now you walk into the second house, here you can't miss the clutter.  Again there is the high ceiling, wooden flooring and large windows.  However this time there is more stuff.  Much more stuff.  There are shelves with all sorts of odds and ends, souvenirs from around the globe, books on every topic under the sun.  There is a fish tank sitting alongside a bird cage. There is a cupboard housing all of the food for these pets.  There is a slew of magazines on the coffee table.  The sun is doing its best to peep through the windows but all of the stuff is blocking it out.  

Can you feel the difference between the two houses? Same house, different contents.  Does one feel fresh and clean, inviting you in with its lack of stuff? Does the other repel you with its overabundance of stuff, cluttering all of the space?

Why are we, human beings, attracted to places that are clean and fresh, lacking copious amounts of 'stuff'?  Conversely, why are we repelled when we walk into places that have too much 'stuff'? Same place, different stuff.  Same space, different contents.  Could contents and items really make such a big difference?

I am not a scientist, nor a psychiatrist, but I would like to propose an idea which resonates with me.  It may also resonate with you.

'Stuff' nibbles away at your energy.

Everything around you gets noticed.  We, humans, constantly scan and process all the information around us.  We process the information to bring sense and order to our surroundings.  A picture of our surrounding is created by our brain constantly working in the background painting that picture.  Every object gets painted into the picture.

'Stuff' sucks your energy.  There is brain drain going on with every item that surrounds you.  Without you being consciously aware of it the more things there are in a room the more things your brain has to process.  The more things there are in a room the more exhausted you become.  A cluttered room is a recipe for sapped energy and exhaustion.  Each and every additional item literally sucks the life force out of you.

Applied to shopping.

When you walk into stores the same thing occurs.  You walk in with intention, intention to buy specific items.  You walk in with purpose, a goal.  What greets you is a slew of redundant items inviting you to play a game of visual and mental obstacle course.  All of those redundant items sap precious energy from you.

It is no surprise that I am exhausted after shopping.  Every extra item in my house drains my energy.  The store puts hundreds of extra items in front of me which drains my energy -- cubed.  Store shopping = energy sapping^3.

Wouldn't it be nice...

Wouldn't it be nice if I could walk into a store and they presented just the objects I wanted?

Wouldn't it be nice if I didn't have to walk aimlessly from aisle to aisle looking for what I really want? Or better yet, flit from store to store when one store doesn't have the item I wanted in stock? Or they don't stock it at all?

You may tell me, “Aron, it sounds like a great idea, but, it is not economical. It doesn’t have economies of scale and such a store would never be able to compete in price. Even if you could come up with a way for a store to stock just the things each consumer wanted – which is an impossibility on its own right – I would rather the energy sapping of all of the items as opposed to the hefty prices I would have to pay to shop at such a store!”

You are right. However my intent here is not to suggest making a store like that. Rather my intention here is to bring to your attention a problem that shopping brings. My intention here is to provoke and challenge your thoughts into the way we shop.

Wouldn’t it be nice if I didn’t have to go shopping for things, but things would go shopping for me?

Thanks for attention. If this article resonates within you and you are interested in testing out something that may solve this problem.  Please email me or call me at agrinshtein@gmail.com or 078 725 4358.

 

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Fear comfortability.

Every person should be afraid.  They should be afraid of getting too comfortable.

The moment you get too comfortable you have become imprisoned.  Imprisoned in the deepest prison.  Where you no longer have a sense of urgency to peep out of the window of your ‘four by four cottage’.  You no longer challenge your paradigms and become stuck in the rut of your own thinking, unable to carve out new paths and new experiences.

The fear of being too comfortable is the key to unlock that prison door.

 

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100% Engagement.

When doing something, anything, it is important to be engaged.  If you don’t desire to do it, stop now and channel your energy into an activity that you will be 100% engaged in. 

If you are talking to someone make an effort to give them your full and utmost attention.  You actually hear what they are saying.

If you are working on a project turn off your cell phone and allow yourself to engrossed in what you are doing.  You are more productive.

Allowing yourself to get disturbed by the ring of the telephone or by an email coming into your inbox doesn’t allow you to get into the ‘zone’.  The zone is the area in which you become most productive.  It is where what you are dealing with is the only thing that matters.  It is when you have completely abnegated yourself to the thing which you are doing. 

Complete and total surrender.

100 Percent engagement.

Be engaged!

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care and affection.

You can care for anybody.  Affection is reserved for people in your very most inner circle.

I care for you by feeding you, clothing you, and providing for your needs and comforts.

I am affectionate to you by doing something small, perhaps inconsequential which expresses how dear and special you are to me.

 

A display of care is to use your ability to rise above yourself and think about someone else.

A display of affection is to open up your heart and make yourself vulnerable to bonding with someone else.

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Say "something"

When people are in a position where they are constantly and consistently being called upon to say something, be it a teacher, rabbi, or every person for that matter, they must ask themselves, “Am I saying something merely because I am being asked to say something or do I actually have something meaningful, something purposeful to say?”

A speaker, who has the unrelenting responsibility of giving speeches, is faced with a challenge.  His speeches can either be the result of his own inspiration or he can succumb to speaking merely as a result of being in the speaking job.

Are you alive because you are alive, or are you alive because you haven’t got hit by a truck!

Are you speaking because you have something to say, or are you speaking because no one else was picked on to speak!

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Two playing fields.

Companies have the option of targeting two markets.

a)      Mainstream.  The name of the game is “aim for the middle of the belly”.

b)      Early adopters.  They are the ones who are ready to buck the mainstream and try something entirely new.  Products that get accepted amongst this group of people are “cool”, they stand a great chance of becoming mainstream.

In the course that they do become mainstream they now have to battle with staying cool.  Mainstream is not cool, and cool is not mainstream.  The challenge of the cool is to become mainstream with staying cool.

Think Microsoft in its early days.

Think Apple nowadays.

Think Chabad in the early days.

Think Chabad as it becomes more and more mainstream.

 

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Being leveled brings about a need for bonding.

With a great deal of successes under ones belt, a sense of arrogance envelopes a person which estranges one from those closest to him.

The biggest blessing for such a person is to have that ‘bubble’ around him popped, that will unite him once again with those closest to him.  

 

One success after the next make one forget that “כי הוא הנותן לך כח לעשות חיל”.  Just as a sharp knife quickly cuts through the toughest of foods gets dulled from one cutting to the next, so too the sharp cognizance and mindfulness of ones successes coming as a result of G-d gets dulled and blunted from one success to the next. 

 

The failure is not a failure but rather a sharpening of the knife.

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THOUGHTS THROUGHOUT THE YEAR SO FAR

The different ideas and thought that crossed my mind as well as attention throughout this year were:

The Dip concept.  Quit that which you don’t see long term value of going through the dips which that endeavor is bound to offer.

The being in tune and in touch with another persons agenda, water, peanut butter sandwich, trips, and learning etc…

Be the best at what you do, the rest of them don’t matter.

Keep things as simple as possible, but no simpler.

We all live in our own little world, Moishke.

When you are turned on things flow naturally otherwise you have to struggle to eke things out.

 

All of these will be expounded upon at greater length another time, and there will be more concepts added.

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TOPICS

In this blog I will be posting:

 

Random musings and thoughts that I have been thinking about.

 

Dvar Torahs and Shiurim that I have prepared.

 

Interesting things that have been brought to my attention.

 

I will not be posting:

 

Personal occurrences in my life, like getting married or having kids or anything of the sort.

 

It is an idea blog.

 

Aron

 

"He who can take no interest in what is small, will take false interest in what is great."

 

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MY FIRST BLOGPOST

This is a container of my thoughts.

 

 

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About

Rabbi. Tech enthusiast.

This blog contains thoughts and ideas which have enhanced my life and I hope will enhance yours!
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3. Product and Book reviews.

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