海角大神

As I鈥檝e mentioned before, several years ago, I was an avid collector of DVDs and vintage sports trading cards. At one point, our DVD collection reached over 1,000 discs. At the same time, I came reasonably close to putting together a 1965 Topps baseball card set (I was mostly missing commons) and I was actually making reasonable headway on a 1934 Goudy baseball card set.

In my effort to build up those collections, I would often add items to my collection at a very rapid-fire pace. I would go to a sports card show and wind up bringing home a small pile of baseball cards, only to find myself going to another show in a couple of weeks. I鈥檇 pick up a DVD one day and then buy another a few days later while the first one was still in shrinkwrap.

I did the same thing for videogames, too. I had a large collection of PS2 games, some of which were still in shrink and others of which I had played for maybe an hour or two. Yet I would still pick up new ones at the store. I had a similar issue with books.

I had established a routine of buying more items before I even remotely began to enjoy what I already had.聽

Clearly, on some level, I had found myself chasing the desire to acquire rather than just enjoying the hobby.聽

I鈥檝e mentioned this problem before and I鈥檇 made it clear that I had overcome it, but I haven鈥檛 really talked about what I did to start turning the tide.

So, what did I do to turn that tide? I set one simple rule in place.

Before I added a single new item to my collection, I had to thoroughly enjoy the item I just added. If I had some items in my collection that I haven鈥檛 actually dug into yet, I needed to dig into one of those as well.

Let me explain in detail how this works.

Let鈥檚 say I have ten books on my bedside table that I鈥檝e not read yet. I pick up a new book at the store. Now,before I can pick up another book, I have to read the new book I鈥檝e picked up as well as one of the books already sitting on my bedside table.

If I have some unplayed computer games in my聽Steam聽account and I pick up a new one, I need to play through the new game (or at least play it until I鈥檓 thoroughly satisfied with it)聽and聽play one of the old unplayed games before I pick up a new one.

I don鈥檛 include swapped items (via book swapping or game swapping) as 鈥渘ew鈥� items for this purpose. I only count items that I actually spent money on.

My logic here is really straightforward.聽Why am I buying something new if I already have something much like it that I haven鈥檛 used?聽If my goal is to enjoy my hobby 鈥� and that should be the goal of any such purchase 鈥� why not just go home and enjoy the hobby items I already have?

What about exceptional sales? I will make little exceptions to this if there鈥檚 a ludicrous sale going on. For example, I recently stopped by a bookstore that was going out of business and I bought several items on enormous discount, mostly to give a final burst of support to a business I鈥檝e patronized for many years. However, before I buy anything else new, you鈥檇 better believe I鈥檓 going to dig through those new items.

What about decorations or other things that are more difficult to continually enjoy? This is trickier. I usually find that I space these things out with time. For example, if I were still actively collecting vintage baseball cards, I鈥檇 likely strongly restrict my monthly spending on them and, if I were tempted, I鈥檇 just get out my collection and enjoy it. The same philosophy works with home decor and other items.

In the end,聽your hobby isn鈥檛 buying new stuff.聽Your hobby is enjoying whatever it is that your hobby is truly about. A hobby of reading isn鈥檛 about buying new books. It鈥檚 about reading books. A hobby of gaming isn鈥檛 about buying new games. It鈥檚 about playing them.