It’s All About What You’re Used To

We were in Japan and asked our four-year-old what she wanted to eat.

“Wagyu beef,” she said.

Excuse me?

I was in my late thirties when I first ate Wagyu. In a Michelin-starred restaurant. Quite an experience.

My daughter clearly saw things differently.

She’d simply had it before and knew she really liked it.

That Wagyu comes from Japanese cattle that are carefully raised for years, and that you pay a pretty penny for a piece of it in Europe?

She had no idea.

It’s all about what you’re used to.

And once something becomes normal to you, it doesn’t feel all that special anymore.

That goes for upgrading your lifestyle.

But just as much for downgrading it.

Our daughter, who chose Wagyu beef, also happily eats hot dogs straight from a can.

Apparently, she doesn’t have an internal quality-control system saying: sorry, from now on it’s A5 Wagyu only.

Maybe there’s something adults could learn from that.

Because how often do we call something a downgrade simply because it’s less than what we’ve become used to?

A smaller house.

Working less.

A lower income.

A different career.

Fewer things.

A second-hand iPhone.

We’re pretty good at looking up.

What’s the next step?

What else can I add?

What’s the upgrade?

But maybe less isn’t always less.

Maybe it’s just less of something you’ve become used to having.

That doesn’t mean you have to swap Wagyu for hot dogs.

But it can be interesting to step outside your own frame of reference every now and then.

What feels completely normal to you now that, five or ten years ago, you would have thought: wow, that’s luxurious?

And the other way around:

What would you now secretly see as a huge step backwards, while it might actually just be a different way of living?

Our daughter had no trouble with any of this in Japan.

Wagyu today. Hot dogs tomorrow.

No judgement. No career ladder. No lifestyle goal. No identity crisis.

Or as my down-to-earth grandmother used to say:

It all ends up in the loo anyway.