Productive and Cognitive Dissonance

Today is the most productive day ever in 2012. Just in case if you didn't know, my definition of productivity is exercise. Yes. I exercised today. Working out like Madonna but minus the buttocks sucking leotards. My exercise regime for the day consisted of: walking to the gym, running the treadmill, walking back from the gym, washing the toilet for an hour, showered for thirty something minutes, walking out for dinner and walking home from dinner. I love how my muscles sore, leaving my legs feeling all numb and weak. Honestly, it has been quite some time since I last did something so productive since I am always lethargic. Speaking of which, I don't find the term 'lazy' or 'lethargic' an excuse for anything, instead I'd look at it as a reflection of myself. And, by that I see it in a good way of course. I gotta admit that although I was busy working my bum at the gym today, my laziness part of me was...  not cooking.

I ate out and got cookies instead! Bought twelve pieces of massive cookies of about 10cm in diameters. My fickle head did not work well today, very unusual for me. Due to my dysfunctional-fickle-head, my impulse purchase of 12 massive cookies was due to the most common popular and typical marketing mix traps of all time i.e. price. Not only am I a victim to impulse shopping, looks like today I have found a new place in the consumer market as I now belong to the 88% of consumers making impulse purchase based on sale items according to infographicsinsights. Anyway, I gave three of them to my friends and ate one myself while my boyfriend finished two and I am now left with 6 MASSIVE cookies. My tummy craves for them like tom yam but my head reminds me about calories. Every part of my body is so numb, including my head. Therefore, making any decision at this point is rather useless. I shall decide what to do about the crunchy dough later.

Let's rewind back to 8 something hours earlier, I have somehow and somewhat experienced 'cognitive dissonance'. According to Free Dictionary, the term cognitive dissonance is described as below:

cognitive dissonance  

1. n. Psychology - A condition of conflict or anxiety resulting from inconsistency between one's beliefs and one's actions, such as opposing the slaughter of animals and eating meat.

(Psychology) an uncomfortable mental state resulting from conflicting cognitions; usually resolved by changing some of the cognitions

2. Business - A state of psychological discomfort arising when a consumer tries to reconcile two conflicting states of mind, for example, the positive feeling of having chosen to buy a product and the negative feeling of being disappointed with it afterwards.

Back to my cognitive dissonance encounter, the situation I encountered today was more likely to be psychology wise than the business definition although it did feel a tad bit like the latter - post-occurrence. Like I said earlier, today is the most productive day for the first half instalment of 2012, I took the time to dress up; wearing my knitted jumper over my shift dress and my oversized vintage cardigan while walking out for dinner having zilch attention on my semi-drenched hair - it was perfect. Okay, maybe not the word perfect but it was all good until I met the very ugly cognitive dissonance. Yes, it was an acquaintance of mine. I saw my acquaintance from afar whom I am not very close to, hence, acquaintance.Growing up as a child, my mum and grandmother always taught me the beauty of smiling and being friendly to people but not creeps of course. I have always been smiley and bubbly ever since, in fact I enjoy smiling to a lot of things like the flowers, my plushies, strangers (not in a pedo way), kids, bus drivers, birds, rabbits and even to my sparkly bathroom I have cleaned.

So I smiled at my acquaintance from afar but he didn't respond so I figured maybe because I was about 50 metres away from him. So I walked closer. Walking close to a ten something metre distance parallel to him, I smiled and waved but he took no notice of me and walked away. It looked pretty much on purpose as my brain sends out a very heavy stimuli angst after the occurrence while my cheeks were red as I hold on to myself, thinking about the generous act I gave. It was too kind and generous I thought, and another voice tells me people who knows you (acquaintance) which pretends to not see and acknowledge your presence in public or in other words, being hostile, just make them very artless and philistine. I somehow regretted on my friendly act - cognitive dissonance. I think I need to start categorising on my pile of acquaintances in order to avoid cognitive dissonance.