Opinion Overload

If there is one thing I have learned in my 34 years, it's that there is advice EVERYWHERE. After that, the second thing I have learned, is that most of that advice comes off as downright demands. The third thing I have learned is this - most of that advice is nonsense that would never work for me or even the majority of people.

When you think of the kind of advice I am talking about, you may imagine an overbearing mother or a religious fanatic. Yes those can be sources of well-meaning but unwanted advice. However, I would suggest that the kind of advice I am talking about can come from even more covert places. I am talking about things like internet articles, doctors, lawyers, newspapers, scientists, news reporters, books, and just about any respectable source you can think of.

You may be wondering at this point exactly what is the kind of advice I am talking about? Let me give some examples. When your doctor tells you you need to take a certain medication to improve your condition and when you take it, it does nothing to help. The news reporter tells you the best way to prevent (insert incurable disease here) has been found to (insert any daily habit). You hear that a scientist has said that the best thing for your tomato plant is (insert plant food idea here). An internet article claims that as long as you get 8 hours of sleep a night you will feel great every day. A fitness expert claims that such-and-such a regime will be the best for such-and-such a person. These may not be the best examples, but by now I hope you are getting the idea. A lot of people think they have figured out the best way to do things, and they insist that you do the same if you are to have any semblance of a good life.

I'm not saying all of this advice is bad or even unfounded. If you doctor prescribed you a medicine, it is probably because there are years of study and experience put into that medicine. If someone says 8 hours of sleep is the best amount, it comes from the experience of all human existence. I certainly don't claim to know better than all of human-kind, but I do know what is better FOR ME than anyone in the world, and I get really tired of having other opinions shoved down my throat. Sometimes I just want to do my own thing even if it means making the wrong choice or going against years of widely-accepted theories. Let me feel free and not bullied into living the perfect life.

You may feel fine with believing everything your doctor says, or doing anything that more than a million people have condoned. As for me, I take every opinion with a grain of salt (or two), and more often than not, the popular thing is not the best thing for me.