{"id":3253,"date":"2016-07-24T11:47:24","date_gmt":"2016-07-24T06:17:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=3253"},"modified":"2016-07-24T11:47:24","modified_gmt":"2016-07-24T06:17:24","slug":"spontaneity-impulsive-personality-happiness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=3253","title":{"rendered":"Small Joys of Spontaneity: The Case for Being an Impulsive Person"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A<\/span><\/p><\/div>

little about me: My <\/span>bank account<\/span><\/a> is permanently empty, my hair is as short as I could possibly have it without looking like a prepubescent boy, and if I had my way, there\u2019d be at least three more tattoos dotting my body. I end up spending a chunk of my <\/span>salary<\/span><\/a> the day I receive it, cut off eight inches of my hair whenever I\u2019m bored, and head out at 2 am to satisfy my shawarma cravings. As you can probably tell, I\u2019m an extremely impulsive person who sees no point in wasting 15 hours overthinking something. \u00a0Naturally, I\u2019ve also been told by countless people that I should seek a \u201ccure\u201d. <\/span>\n\nBut what exactly is \u201cdangerous\u201d about my personality and why is everyone so hell-bent on treating it? Sure, being impulsive isn\u2019t going to win me the <\/span>Nobel Prize<\/span><\/a> and sometimes it gets me in trouble. But it\u2019s also the reason why I\u2019ve done very few things I regret.<\/span>\n\nThe way I see it, each one of us is impulsive. But half of the population mercilessly suppresses those impulses, because you know \u201clog kya kahenge?\u201d Take it from someone who doesn\u2019t like making herself miserable: It\u2019s pretty lovely (and convenient for my wallet) to not need <\/span>drugs<\/span><\/a> or alcohol to get high. Or do something completely spontaneous, irrational, and unpredictable that no one could have seen coming. <\/span>\n\nMost of us don\u2019t think too highly of momentary <\/span>happiness<\/span><\/a>. Our eyes are set on larger goals like getting a promotion, taking a luxury vacation, or getting hitched. It\u2019s only in these big moments that we unleash some doses of our impulsiveness. But what we don\u2019t realise is that in this needless act of rationalising, we chip away a part of ourselves. A part of us that could\u2019ve lived in the moment.<\/span>\n\n

Being impulsive has given me a different kind of joy, one that ensures that there\u2019s not much that I\u2019m afraid to do.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\nAn <\/span>essay<\/span><\/a> titled \u201cOverthinking is the Root of All Your Problems\u201d posits, \u201cWhen you\u2019re constantly thinking, worrying and analysing, you aren\u2019t in the moment. You are taken out of the moment and instead put in a place of suffering. What good does staying in the past do? Where can you go from these thoughts?\u201d<\/span>\n\nBeing impulsive has given me a different kind of joy, one that ensures that there\u2019s not much that I\u2019m afraid to do. Take me for instance; I like you? I\u2019ll tell you. I hate you? I\u2019ll tell you that too. I want to <\/span>buy something<\/span><\/a>? You\u2019ll see me with it tomorrow. I don\u2019t like a job? I quit. I want to bungee-jump? Okay, maybe that one will take some thinking, but I definitely won\u2019t chicken out. I\u2019m not saying that thinking things through is the worst thing to do, but tell me one thing: How can you do everything you actually wanted to, if you spent so much time thinking about it?<\/span>\n\nAllow me to give you an example. A few years ago, egged on by my flat tummy, I decided to secretly rush out and get a belly piercing. I loved it and kept staring at it for the rest of the day. But after a few days, I began to <\/span>panic<\/span><\/a>: What if my parents find out? What if it gets infected? What if I develop a paunch? Eventually I had it removed. Did I waste a lot of money on this secret mission? Of course. Did I understand that I should think a little more about the consequences of my actions? Without a doubt. But does it mean that I regret it? Hell no. If I hadn\u2019t gotten the piercing on an impulse, I don\u2019t think I would have ever known how much I\u2019d actually like it. And what I learnt from this experience was that putting a lot of thought into something would only limit the things I\u2019m actually willing to try. Because what can you trust if you\u2019re not willing to trust your own impulse?<\/span>\n\nThat said I do have a few regrets though I\u2019d rather not ponder over them. I\u2019ve ended a few friendships and relationships impulsively. I remember this nice boy I dated in college and it was all going right. He had a great sense of humour, we liked the same authors and movies, plus he gave me the space I needed. But I began to get restless after two months, and after a few days of struggling to find excuses to break up with him, I woke up one morning and made up my mind that the relationship wasn\u2019t working. I sent him a text and never responded to any of his messages or emails. It was only after meeting my fair share of not-so-nice boys that I realised he was probably a keeper. <\/span>\n\nMaybe being impulsive is terrible. There are probably loads of <\/span>scientific<\/span><\/a> studies to suggest that. I mean, I\u2019m probably going to be bald or broke, and\/or probably both in the next 10 years. But the way I see it, at least I\u2019ll have stories to tell. Stories I\u2019ll be proud of telling, about the strangest things I\u2019ve been brave enough to try. <\/span>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m an impulsive person who sees no point in wasting hours overthinking something, so naturally, I\u2019m told that I should seek a \u201ccure\u201d. But what exactly is \u201cdangerous\u201d about my personality and why is everyone so hell-bent on treating it?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":274,"featured_media":3254,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[107],"tags":[6346,6347,6348,6349,3450,6350],"class_list":["post-3253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pov","tag-impulse","tag-impulsive","tag-impulsive-person","tag-reckless","tag-spontaneous","tag-thrill"],"yoast_head":"\nSmall Joys of Spontaneity: The Case for Being an Impulsive Person<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I\u2019m an impulsive person who sees no point in wasting hours overthinking something, so naturally, I\u2019m told that I should seek a \u201ccure\u201d. 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