I'm reading a 6-month old issue of Chronicle of the Horse in which Denny Emerson (1974 Equestrian Champion) describes horse shopping in Ireland. First he describes his kamikaze driver who has one foot pressing the gas peddle to the floor while craning her neck to engage in conversation with passengers in the backseat. In the meantime oncoming traffic is a large hay wagon. What does he do? He buys the next horse in order to avoid another road trip.
This, in general, describes my shopping experience no matter what I'm buying. The journey is always fraught with some kind of trauma, imagined or real. Somehow the journey seems to decide the outcome of the purchase more so than the quality or suitability of the goods being considered for purchase.
Or, I'm a shopping wimp. I'm fully prepared to admit that shopping itself traumatizes me so I'm likely to buy the first thing that might seem suitable and hope it works out.
Usually it does. I rarely have buyer's remorse. Sometimes the outcome isn't anywhere near what I imagined but I'm not particularly attached to my expectations so I adjust. You might say that I most adopt the attitude that if the Universe plopped it in front of me at this particular time then it's the right thing and I'm ready to learn whatever lesson I'm supposed to gain. This is the easy way to be flexible.
There was a time when I may have considered force, as in forcing whatever is in front of me to work out for my purposes. But that was an exercise in frustration and ultimately ended up going badly with a lot of hard feelings. I'm not sure when I changed my mind — probably longer than necessary.
In any event I'm happy with my direction forward and am prepared to be curious about what comes next, accepting the challenges before me, and flexible in how I navigate the path forward.