In all honesty, I had not planned to write on the above topic until I realised that today’s entry would be my one- hundredth article.
Reflecting on the past four months’ of writing and researching, I thought of a single recent episode that struck me as rather perturbing and somewhat embarrassing.
There was nothing particularly humorous or interesting about what happened- I was having a coffee with a friend of mine when he asked me what my favourite ice cream flavour was.
As my mind was wandering at the time (not what you might call a ‘solid’ excuse, really…), I said, in a rather absent- minded manner, that I didn’t know.
I realised what I had done a fraction of a second later and tried to mend it by saying that I meant to say vanilla; alas, it was too late.
At that point, as you might imagine, my friend took the golden opportunity to remind me that I should really stick to my advice, especially when I was constantly sharing my views with others and trying to get people to adopt those.
Initially, I was ready to take out my big sack-o-arguments and prove that he was wrong and that I had always stood by my word but then I thought of other scenarios in which I had done a similar thing, out of sheer absent- mindedness.
And then I thought:
Was I Lance Armstrong?
(Which was, you’d have to agree, quite a good attempt for a joke)
The worrying bit, of course, was the mere fact that there was a speck of truth in every joke; and there were quite a few specks in that one.
When you go around giving advice to people and voicing your beliefs, they expect you to stick to those for several reasons, namely:
1. To prove that it actually works
Imagine you tell people that it is completely unacceptable to be stingy and then ask them to pay for your coffee because you left your cash and debit card at home for the fifth time in a row; how will that work out?
Simple, really; people will see that being stingy actually works because, so far, you have not paid for your coffee once. Defeats the purpose, no…?
2. To prove that you can be trusted by others
Just like Lance Armstrong did- he told people not to use drugs and he never did! That’s why everyone trusts him now. See what I did there?
3. To prove others that you can trust yourself
Philosophicalmuch? Not in the slightest, really. Contradicting yourself means that you are insecure in your beliefs and views and cannot trust yourself; namely, you ‘adapt’ your views to fit in with the surrounding environment. Very few people appreciate that (i.e. politicians).
4. To NOT look like a complete clown
If you constantly change your views on a subject or go against your own advice, people will start seeing you as a very sad clown who is doing everything in his power to make those around him laugh (mostly AT him) so that he can fit in. Pray don’t do that; it doesn’t bode well. It’s like using your political campaign to tell students to vote for your party because you aren’t going to increase tuition fees and then, when they do vote for you, do a sharp U- turn and triple the fees; can you imagine someone doing that!?
In the light of the above, regardless of how arduous it might be, you should always try to stick to your own advice and beliefs; especially, if you want to convince others in adopting those.
Don’t be Liberal; be yourself!
No political joke intended whatsoever.
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