18 Jun Be An Active Part Of The Experience Economy And Change Your Mindset
Last week, my husband and I spent £300 on a night out. It may sound extortionate – we are not high earners, but we both agreed it was worth every penny for every relished moment. We went to see The Rolling Stones at Old Trafford – our first Stones concert, and we SAW Mick Jagger perform live! We both ticked off a Bucket List item that we will be able to talk about for many years.
All of the 50,000 plus audience had spent our money on the experience rather than materialism – we contributed to the “Experience Economy” which is fast taking over from everyday materialism we see in the high streets.
As the “Experience Economy” rises, the high street shops continue to lose their share in the economy and in our daily lives. Last week, House of Fraser announced it is closing 21 of its high street department stores, including its flagship Oxford Street store. Our shopping habits have changed from enjoying the experience of convenience in finding everything under one building to making instant purchases from our tablets, laptops and phones wherever we are – choosing from a much wider range, and organising delivery at the same time.
Even one of our most popular possessions we are all attached to – our phones – provide a varied and enhanced experience – a camera, music player, a navigator, a tv, a games machine, a means to find information as well as its original use – a communication device.
Purchasing an experience is far more fulfilling than buying a possession – as we have discussed on our Advance courses for many years. The experience purchase boosts our dendrites in several ways:
Our goal setting to participate in the experience. The purchase is a part of our SMART goal. We can mark the date on our phones, our work calendar, a calendar on the wall. We make plans so that we can attend the experience, and ensure it is achievable.
Visualising the experience as we anticipate the event – as we visualise the experience, our dendrites strengthen from the imagery just as they would during the actual experience in real time.
Our moods are boosted by our experience – we enjoy the rush of endorphins – our mood boosters, during an experience which stimulate our positivity, our feel good factor, and have positive effects on our immune system and well being. If our experience is participating in a sport or watching a live concert or being at a place we have never been, our endorphins are stimulated by new experiences WITHIN that one whole experience.
Sharing the experience – by sharing an experience with others we create joint memories which we can return to after the event. A shared experience means our thoughts and memories can be enhanced by the thoughts of others stimulating our own ideas. We can return to the memory of the experience, and relive it – thus enhancing our dendrites.
By reliving a positive experience in our memories, this boosts our endorphins so that we have a more positive mood – which motivates us to behave more positively. An experience can be an achievement we had to work towards, and we may have had to change our behaviour such as building up our strength and exercise or visit a new place.
The purchase of an experience which could last ten minutes, an hour, a weekend, a week or even a whole year can have a positive effect on our thoughts, beliefs, habits and behaviour for our future. One experience can physically change our brain connections and our mindset. So, next time, you are considering whether a purchase is worth it, think about the long term benefits of the experience.
Will this experience change my mindset?