At least 50% of this is bullsh*t.
I sit in my local chemist retailer, admiring the seemingly endless rainbow-rows of bottles, potions and lotions.
It occurs to me that at least 50% of this is bullsh*t.
Contrary to claims on the packaging, there is a significant likelihood that at least 50% of these products won’t have the desired effect. Which begs the question: “Which 50%?”
Which politicians espousing promises?
Which diets in the best interests of our health?
Which financial advice?
Which start-up success story?
After 15+ years in the advertising industry my bullsh*t detector is finely tuned yet still plenty fallible. Recently I embarked upon on a ‘Nose to Tail’ diet (yep; nothing but meat, poultry, seafood, salt and water) for 3 weeks. Whilst some of the results were as expected and even better than expected, I vastly underestimated how awfully lethargic this would make me feel. This despite (seemingly informed) claims that, in my newfound flesh fuelled fervour, I’d be doing cartwheels and air fives to passers-by in 3 to 7 days.
Turning the Mikey-petrol (carb fuelled) engine into Mikey-diesel (fat fuelled) engine in 3 to 7 days, when I’ve pretty lived on carbs for 39 years?
No bueno.
Some takeout’s from this particular little experiment:
Optimism bias is real. I wanted this diet to work as claimed. As such l underestimated the likelihood of it totally sucking (the energy out of me).
Are there things we’re doing in our day-to-day that, if we looked at them with a fresh perspective, we’d decide are actually not benefiting us/taking us toward our most EPIC selves?
We’re inevitably going to make choices that don’t pan out as we’d hoped. Rather than give up; this is the time to choose again rather than to revert to old behaviours.
When we make a misstep; are we leveraging our improved our odds or are we letting failure make as risk averse?
As for closing the loop on the ‘who to trust’ thing; I’ll leave you with a paradoxical principle from one of my favourite novelists and purveyor of epic pursuits; Ernest Hemingway:
“The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them.”
Maybe read the back of the label next time you’re at the chemist…