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Gift wrap versus gift bags. Which is better and why? There's a clear and obvious answer, y'all. Seriously, there really is. Let's talk about it.
Welcome to Chasing the Awesome Life, your weekly guide to making life just a little bit more awesome. Because we all have goals and dreams, but y'all, the struggle is real. So take a little time today to equip yourself with the tools and the inspiration to be more awesome in all aspects of your life. There's no topic I won't cover from kids to college to the joys and the struggles. It can all be awesome if you just choose to chase it. So
So get ready to take some notes and then more importantly, take some awesome action because this is chasing the awesome life. Why am I about to listen to a podcast about gift wrap versus gift bags? And what's the difference? And really, why does it even matter? Because you know what? Y'all, there are certain things in life that sometimes...
are just more awesome than others. And when you think about it, there's usually a reason and something you can learn from it. Okay, so let's talk about gift wrap. Y'all, first off, gift wrap. How many tools does it take to wrap something up? To wrap a present, let's say it's somebody's birthday. It's time to wrap up a present. You get out your gift wrap. You're like, all right. How many tools do I need though?
Well, first off, you need two hands. So there's two. Okay. You need two hands and you cannot wrap a present with one hand. If you can come see me, tell me how the hell you did it. You're a God. Okay. I don't think it's possible.
So you need two hands. You need the wrapping paper. You need your scissors. You need tape. And it's got to be good tape. It can't be none of that dollar store crap tape. You know what I'm talking about. The tape that like takes seven years to rip off. And I'm all about balling on the budget, y'all. But it can't be that like crappy tape. You ever try to rip crappy tape when you've already got the paper like put together? And two, it can't be like junky paper. So...
My wife's gonna say shots fired when I say this. Yo, she bought this paper for Christmas this past year. She bought it from like one of those wrapping paper sale things that, you know, kids do in elementary school. You know what I'm talking about? It was just like super cute dinosaur wrapping paper that little dinosaurs have little hats on. It was like, you know, cray cray adorbs. It was awesome. So she bought this paper. Yo, the tape didn't stick to the freaking paper. Like.
Like, what the hell? It was so ridiculous. So, all right, so we've got our two hands. We've got our tape. We've got to be good tape. We've got scissors. Okay, you can't have some, like, dull junkie scissors either, though, right? You've got to have scissors that are going to cut through the paper, the decent paper, not the junkie paper that tape won't stick to. Because, you know, you ever try to, like, get the scissors to go through? You, like, hold up, you see one of those, like, you know...
professional rappers in the mall and they like do that like cut thing you know what happens when I do that that like rips the paper into 14 pieces you know exactly what I'm talking about like one of my goals in life is to learn exactly how to do the as you get the paper to go all the way across like that's one of my goals so we've got our good scissors
And then also, you need a table, an appropriately cleared table, or you can try and do it on the floor. And if you do it on the floor, you need to make sure that you don't have any pets, animals, or anything else on the floor in the way. Especially if you got a cat. There's way too many videos out there of cats like getting all up in people's business when they're trying to wrap presents. So,
We got all that just to wrap a present. And then you got to know how the hell to do it. Like you have to know how to wrap the present. Otherwise it looks like if you're not a professional wrapper, you look like you're a five-year-old that wrapped it. Like my stuff looks like a five-year-old wrapped something every time. I'm like, did I measure it right? Is it the exact amount? Like it's ridiculous. Okay. So I have now spent...
I don't know, about four minutes, y'all. You've literally listened for almost four minutes to what it's like to wrap something with gift wrap. Okay, let's talk about gift bags on the opposite end of the spectrum. Gift bags, here's how it works. You know how many tools you need to wrap a gift bag? One.
One hand. You can wrap something, most likely, with one hand. You think you can't? Grab the gift bag by one handle and whip it open, right? You probably should use two hands, but you could do it with one, okay? The next piece of why gift bags are awesome, y'all, is because gift bags come in all sorts of different shapes and sizes. So I know if I need a large present, right?
If I have a large present, I can go to the store and I can buy the largest gift bag that they have. Right? Because let's be honest, there's only a certain size gift that you're going to actually wrap with paper. You know, all parents out there and most people that have ever wrapped a gift, when you get to a certain size gift, you know what you do with that shit? You just put a freaking bow on it. That's it. That's what you do. You don't do anything else other than put a damn bow on it. Okay? So...
You go and you can either get the largest gift bag, you can get the appropriate size gift bag, but you go to the store, you buy the gift bag, you buy the tissue paper, and then you put the present in the bag and you put the tissue paper on the top. The end. Kaputsky. You're done. I spent less than a minute and a half talking about gift bags. Okay.
So y'all, what's the point of all this, right? You didn't just tune into Nick ranting about gift bags or gift wraps. Obviously, there's a point and there's a lesson to all of this. I wouldn't be doing this if there wasn't something for you to take home, fam. All right? So let's think about our lives. Think for just a second about the past week. What have you done
out of tradition, out of routine that is more like a gift wrap versus a gift bag? Are you going through your day to day and just doing something because that's just what you think you need to do? What can you find that you are able to gift bag instead of gift wrap?
So fantastic tip, right? Something that I will suggest to anybody who is trying to change a habit or change a behavior to change it from a gift wrap to a gift bag.
If you're struggling to do something, don't overcomplicate it. Stack your habits. This is something that Charles Duhigg in his book, The Power of Habit, talks about. It's something that James Clear in his book, Atomic Habits, and I'll link both of those in this show. Both of those are fantastic books, but I'll simplify it in case you don't ever get a chance to read it because, again, gift bag, not gift wrap. So...
What you're gonna do is find something you already have a habit of doing if that habit is something such as brushing your teeth Then what you're gonna do is stack the other habit on top of it So maybe you want to practice and you want to be better at meditating and being mindful look one when you brush your teeth and
The dentists recommend that you should brush for two minutes. How many of us actually brush for two minutes? Even if you got one of those electric toothbrushes that goes for two minutes, you know what you want to do? You're like, all right, I got all my teeth. I'm good. You're like 30 seconds into it. Y'all stack the habit.
meditate and practice breathing and mindfulness and thinking about nothing at the same time that you're already practicing that habit. At the end of the day, if you did that twice, both in the morning and the evening, you've then taken four minutes worth of time
And you are now creating a new habit. Or maybe you want to journal. Maybe you're trying to practice gratitude. You know, they say, and again, another wonderful book, The Happiness Advantage by Sean Acker. There's studies upon studies out there that show that spending the time to write down three positive things that happened to you that day or three things that you're grateful for
That when you do that, you become more happy and more satisfied with your life. But that has to be a habit for that to truly be... I mean, you can't do that like once every two weeks. That's what a lot of people do. They try it and they're like, oh, let me do this for a week. This is great. And then we stop because it's not stacked. So...
You don't all of a sudden just stop brushing your teeth, right? It's something you've learned to do. You understand the reason behind it, the importance of it, why you do it. The same thing should happen with any other habit you want. But again, you can't overcomplicate it. Don't turn it into gift wrap. Y'all gift bag it. Make it simple. Schedule it. Find a time. Don't overcomplicate the behavior change.
Wrap it up nice in the gift bag and unwrap it at the same time every day. You'll be happier, you'll be healthier, and overall, you'll be less stressed. You ain't got to worry about now the scissors and the tape. Although I will say, if somebody listening to this podcast can teach me how to do the scissor thing, there's shit.
I think you all don't, you can't see this. Every time I've done that, and you're probably envisioning this in your head, I've like moved my hand forward in one solid straight line, like I'm literally trying to cut the paper. If somebody knows how to do that and you can teach me, I'll be forever indebted to you. That'd be greatly appreciated. So let's gift bag this thing up for y'all. When it comes to making a behavior change, don't overcomplicate it. Gift bag it.
That's it right there, y'all. Keep chasing the awesome life. We'll see you next time.
