What’s Your Vice?
“Do as I say, not as I do.”
Sage advice, I suppose.
On one hand, we all know what that means that the one saying it is superior to us. The rules don’t apply to that person. And everyone else who repeats it. I’m pretty sure I must’ve said those words at one time. Hopefully not to my kids. (If I did, sorry.)
Here are some of my current versions of “Do as I say, not as I do.”
“Don’t compare yourself to others.” Pfft. Easier said than done. But I figured out a work-around. Judge others! Totally takes the pressure off of the comparison game, which is really, really bad, as far as raising your level of happiness. Yeah, one more vice.
“Never start the day scrolling on your phone.” Okay, you got me. Back in the day, I was big on saying stuff like, “Don’t start the day scrolling social media.” I stick to that, mostly because I realized I’m not that interested in social media. But I do doom scroll through the Google news feed. That’s probably just as bad. The first few items are shitty news, and the next 20 items are meaningless fluff that will influence my life at a level of zero. As I’m scrolling, I know all this. This is a vice.
“Lay off the booze.” Ah, fuck, really?!? Man, I do love the cocktail culture. Fortunately for me, I suppose, I’ve been able to pass on boozy cocktails simply because of the calorie count. I did lose some significant weight this year and I intend to keep it off. That said, I did figure out that three glasses of wine more or less equal one cocktail. So now I’m loving wine. This is another vice.
I popped those vices out in about five minutes. I could go on (and on and on…) but the point is, we all have them. We’ve always had them. We always will. It’s the human experience. If you feel that your vice blows mine out of the water, maybe you could explore that a bit further. Step back, be a scientist, and really investigate your “vice.”
And yeah, I intentionally put air quotes around that.
