Did you ever see something and then, while pondering if you should get it or take a step forward, it was gone?
You panic, frantically search for it, and then realize it is gone.
Your mood drops. You get sad or even grieve.
Sometimes this feeling is shallow; other times it’s strong like someone took your precious treasure away.
But it always has in common, that it’s a totally irrational feeling as you never owned the thing in the first place.
How can you lose something that is not even yours (or in your care)?
But here we are, we humans, with this strange feeling.
A strange feeling that fascinatingly is a major driving factor for us.
We’d rather not lose something than to gain something.
Fascinating, isn’t it?
Like it happened to me today and is the trigger for this email.
I’m occasionally browsing real estate in southern France as I plan, of now, to move there once my daughter finishes school. On to new horizons outside of Germany.
Anyway, today I was browsing a site and found a sweet little apartment. It ticked off most of my requirements, and while I was pondering and out for a walk, the listing was gone.
Vanished.
With a boring 404 - Page not found.
Out of nowhere came the blues, more bluesy than the dark clouds out there.
Until suddenly, I had to laugh as I became aware of what was happening.
That irrationality of losing something I never had in the first place caught me in its fangs.
I laughed my way free and turned it into this week’s email to remind you of the irrationality.
It’s not real; you and I did not lose anything, so there’s no reason to trigger a loss-routine. Smile and move on.