In my work, I have the luxury of making a true study of human nature.
What makes people happy? What makes you truly miserable?
What behaviors actually make a difference for you to be really, really healthy? What is a waste of time or money, no matter how good the marketing looks?
It’s my observation that you can’t actually eat the way that most Americans eat (the SAD diet – Standard American Diet) and expect to be healthy OR happy.
We’re talking fast food – yes, diet sodas, one of my personal pet peeves.
I like just about everybody, but if I am out someplace and a certain famous overweight Southern chef (not to mention any particular names) gets on T.V. advocating a donut sandwich with a burger patty, fried egg and bacon, you can expect me to go momentarily berserk.
You can’t just take a stroll, live on diabetes medication and eat like that and actually expect to be healthy – it would take a lot more working out, a lot more drugs or a year in nutrition school to deprogram someone from the nasty effects of that lifestyle.
Similarly, I don’t think it’s possible to live your life the standard American way and expect to be happy.
The Santa Claus corporation doesn’t exist – oh, you know the one – the company you expect to take care of you the rest of your life, with superb benefits, 100 percent paid for health insurance, saintlike bosses whose only concern is the wellbeing of you and your family and plenty of time for you to vacation whenever you feel like it.
If only you could find a job like that, give me a ring and let me know!
The people who comprehend this lifestyle thing the absolute best are artists, musicians and poets.
“Think outside the box, collapse the box, and take a fucking sharp knife to it.” Banksy
“My heroes are at the heart
To the life I wanna live
And all I remember, is thinking
I wanna be like them
Mmhmm
Ever since I was little,
Ever since I was little it looked like fun
And as no coincidence I’ve come
And I can die when I’m done
“Maybe I’m crazy
Maybe you’re crazy
Maybe we’re crazy
Probably”
Gnarles Barkley
“If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.” Henry David Thoreau
“I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.”
Robert Frost
So many of the health problems that I see in my clients are due to not truly thinking through the long-term effects of their career planning.
Yes, I agree, it’s important to pay the rent, have a car and hopefully health insurance, but why not begin with the end in mind. Don’t just look for a job – look for a meaningful life.
Yea, maybe I am a little crazy. But I have managed to do that and if you think for yourself just a little, maybe you can too.
I remember when I was in mid-30s, I thought to myself that if I invested just 10 percent of my intelligence into making myself happy and healthy, I could really accomplish something.
That was the beginning not just of a career change but of the creation of an entirely new way of life.
“Come on now, who do you,
Who do you, who do you,
Who do you think you are?
Ha ha ha, bless your soul
You really think you’re in control?
Well?
“I think you’re crazy
I think you’re crazy
I think you’re crazy
Just like me”
Gnarles Barkley
Click here if you want to have some music to listen to while you dream outside the box.
