The Mall

Shopping shopping shopping … isn’t that what everyone is involved in every day? Whether you are working or self employed, you are after selling something to someone in exchange for value at the end of the day right? Is there anything for free in life?

What we fail to realize, or usually forget, is that life is a huge shopping mall, and we are all trading day and night, forgetting that we have pay for what we shop at the counter! But where is the life counter? When do we pay? Who controls the price?

The “SALE” and law of attraction

Are you attracted by those tags? Love to buy items on sale / offer? Aren’t we all? The law of attraction suggests that you will attract what you focus on and then it will become a reality, and for that, let’s pause for a while and reflect …. are we thinking more of what we need or what is on sale in life? Are we focusing on the needs or process of sales?

How many times did we get dragged into business and forgot important family events? Traded friendship for business? Isn’t that happening every day? Aren’t we all getting attracted by the “Sale” tag every single day, and forgetting what we need most? Aren’t we justifying the trade-off by saying that “It’s a good deal”? and that we “Had to grab the chance”? ….. Fair?

The cashier!

The moment of truth comes at the cashier! This is the moment when we realize we actually have to pay for what we bagged! The biggest challenge in life is that we don’t realize the price of what we shop everyday … What’s the price of missing your father’s birthday? How much is missing your child’s school event worth? How do you price a missed spiritual moment / prayer? … Got the idea?

While we all try our best to make very sensible decisions on material purchases (cars / houses /..etc), we usually fail in making sensible decisions in our “Life Mall”, as we mainly fail in recognizing the price that we have to pay for what we shop.

Your father’s birthday might be his last, and your child’s school event might mean the world to them, and your spiritual moment / prayer might be a life saver for you .. but who thinks of that? Why don’t we make rational decisions about shopping in the “Life Mall”?

The Mall Rules

Here are the top 3 rules we need to reflect on when shopping at the “Life Mall”:

1. No exchange or refund: Once we make a transaction, there is absolutely no refund for that .. and also you can’t exchange it for something else .. Reflect on that for a moment … once you break out a relationship, does it ever come back exactly the same? or even close to how it was?

2. The mall operates a “Floating price”! There is no set price for what we shop at the mall .. you will never know how much you have to pay for what you shop until it is time to pay ..

3. The cashier will come to you .. you don’t have to walk to them! The time we pay for what we shop is actually unknown .. we will usually get the bill on a surprise or unexpected moment .. Don’t we all? Sometimes the “pay time” is instant, and sometimes it is after years and sometimes it is delayed until someone departs life .. The date is preset but not communicated, but once it is time to pay, then there is no escape.

Life is a one-way mall, where all customers circle around shopping for what they get attracted to everyday .. challenging the law of attraction, and resisting the temptations to “grab the chance” is key to avoid paying a huge bill at the inevitable cashier that everyone reaches at some point ..

Next time you hear the word “SALE” … or someone tells you “It’s a chance that will come once in life” ……………………………… Think!

Written by:

Engagement Expert, International Speaker & Pragmatic researcher