Conditioned

I know a lot of happy people.

But I also know a lot of miserable people.

You probably do, too. As I mentioned last week, in a recent survey, 67% of those asked reported being generally dissatisfied with their lives.

I've been thinking a lot about what the dissatisfied people I know have in common.

-->They feel stuck

-->They feel like they are capable of more but don't know how to get there

-->They feel like their hard work isn't paying off the same as others

-->They feel cheated

-->They are jealous of other's achievements

Despite feeling this way, they mostly don't see any other options, so they keep doing what they are doing and hoping for a good outcome.

Now, hold that thought for a minute.

Yesterday, I got an email from one of my kid's coaches about an upcoming athletic competition.

Regarding feeding the kids, it said:

". . .bagged lunch for those participating: Pasta salad, Uncrustable®, chips, cookie, and small juice box."

As any top-performing athlete will tell you, peak performance requires peak nutrition.

Tom Brady didn't become Tom Brady by eating chips and cookies.

Yet, the team is gearing up for the competition at my daughter's school by packing bagged lunches full of junk food.

And we know it's junk food! Hell, you can go right on Smucker's website (https://www.smuckersuncrustables.com/inspiration/nutrition) and read for yourself - they freely admit they are not healthy food!

Yet we condition our kids to eat it!

I see these little plastic packages of highly processed, sugar-and-seed-oil-laden junk food offered at every extracurricular event I attend.

Baseball games.

Track meets.

Marching band.

Swim team.

Ballet.

Everywhere!

All while we pretend to teach kids to be healthy. At schools all over the country, they are told, in their health classes, about fats, proteins, and carbohydrates.

About vitamins and minerals.

But only at a textbook level that's arguably rooted in misinformation.

And then, somehow, we wonder how our country has a health crisis.

We wonder why people can't seem to eat healthy food instead of the mountains of processed bullshit we consume.

And we wonder why there's an ever-growing demand for more and more of it.

Maybe because we've collectively raised our kids to see no other option?

We conditioned them to ignore the alternatives (clean, unprocessed food) in favor of readily available and convenient junk food.

And so we wind up adults, like a fellow I talked to last week, who are wholly unsatisfied with their health.

He was a good 200 pounds overweight, had several named diseases, and was on 7 or 8 medications, and clearly unhappy about it.

When I asked about his diet, he led with Hamburger Helper, Diet Coke, and Hardee's biscuits.

"You think that might have something to do with your health problems?"

"Nah, I doubt it. Been eating that way all my life, and all this only started in the last couple of years."

Like the people dissatisfied with their lives but continue to do the same things daily, he can't see the alternative.

And, for that, he's miserable.

Which makes me wonder. . .

How many of that 67% would be satisfied if only they would shed their conditioned beliefs?