It saddens me knowing how resistant many of are to acknowledging the fact that we can change our lifestyle. We complain about our lot in life and disregard the part of the problem that’s malleable. When we’re stressed out we whine about it and ignore it as a signal from ourselves to god forbid change something in our lives. If we eat too much candy or drink too much booze (or if you’re like me, both), we puke. If we brush our hand on a hot stove, we yank it away. After that it’d be pretty stupid if we kept forcing the sugary poison down our throats or kept our hand pressed to the burning surface.

Yet, when it comes to other things, non-ingestible things like “work” for instance, we do. We just keep downing the work vodka and keep complaining when we puke it up later. We keep our hands glued to the stovetop and complain when we get burned.

I’m not better than anyone else. I am so bad at this. I complain that I’m more overweight than I should be, I’m tired, I have no time to write, my job is sucking out my soul, I’m broke, I never get vacations, etc. The list goes on longer than an effing Tom Clancy novel.

And yet, when I hear people complain about their (preventable) health problems, or that they hate their jobs, or that they don’t get vacations, or whatever it may be, I think, CHANGE YOUR LIFE!!! Get a new job. Exercise instead of watching three hours of Netflix every night. Eat something nutritious instead of a Big Mac once in a while. I urge these people in my mind that they can be healthy and relatively stress free if they choose to be, if they eliminate the things that are killing them.

There are, of course, circumstances in life we can’t actually change and have no control over. But I’m not talking about those things. And even then, that’s the point. We can’t do anything about it so why are we wasting our precious breaths talking about it? Instead, why don’t we use our energy on things we do have control over, however great or small that amount of control is.

This post is basically just a tough love lecture to myself, because as much as I’m constantly aware much of my current lifestyle isn’t working, the realization doesn’t often instill itself strongly enough for me to actually change anything.

The lecture is working, though, because after I started writing this post yesterday, I went for a long walk (I don’t get enough exercise!), I resisted eating the entire bucket of free chocolate at work (I’m so unhealthy!), I laid out in the sun for awhile (I never get to go outside anymore!), I read a book I really loved (I never have time to read!), I cleaned my room, (I don’t have the energy to clean!), and I filled out my first job application in a year (My current job situation makes me morbidly unhappy!). Also I worked on this blog post (I don’t write enough!).

P.S. My room is clean again. I’m hoping it will last a little longer this time.