The worst piece of advice I’ve ever been given

It’s just a short blog today because I want to keep up with Podmas but I’m on a press trip in Saudi Arabia and I haven’t had much downtime. I’m looking forward to sharing more from my trip to Saudi Arabia. I’m not being paid to be here and I’m under no obligation to post anything so I’m looking forward to sharing an honest account from my experience.

Anyway, back to Podmas.

Today’s prompt for Podmas is: The worst advice you’ve ever been given

There isn’t one single piece of bad advice I’ve ever been given but there is some advice that we’re generally given by society that I don’t agree with.

It’s the advice that things will make us happy.

Deep down, we all know things don’t make us happy, but we hope these things will be a shortcut to happiness.

Let’s say you’re not happy with your body shape and want to lose weight; all the advice out there is to buy things to fix the situation. Buy a juicer, buy an app, buy these special shoes that help you run faster, buy this expensive new superfood, buy this cookbook, buy an expensive membership to a health club. Buy, buy, buy.

But we all know you don’t really need to buy anything. You just need to eat less and work up a sweat.

We’re constantly bombarded with advertisements to buy things and shown that when people buy something it makes them happier and sexier and more glamourous and more likeable.

But when I think about the happiest and sexiest and most likeable people I know, they’re not happy or sexy or likeable because of their car or their designer handbag or their new phone! I like them because they’re nice. They’re sexy because they’re confident and they’re happy because they’re not comparing themselves to other people.

There’s a reason why we constantly see these sales messages and it’s simple; it’s because businesses need to sell us stuff to make any money. If we stop buying things then our whole economy would collapse. Society is built on capitalism and I don’t believe this will ever change for the masses, but I do think it will change for small communities of people who live for experiences rather than possessions.

I hope the minimalism movement plays a big part in this and the rise of minimalist influencers does suggest more and more people are turning away from consumerism. But even with minimalism I’m still seeing a lot of advertising to buy things to be a better minimalist, so maybe we’ll never turn away from it. Maybe we can just turn half way from it. Just 45 degrees perhaps?

I’m finding that as I’m getting older it’s getting much easier to buy less.

When I was younger I didn’t know what I wanted or who I really was so I was easily influenced by advertising or the latest trend. But when you get older you do become much more confident in who you are so I do think you’re less susceptible to the ‘buy, buy, buy’ messaging.

This is a topic I could write about all day but I’ll leave it there because it’s midnight and I’m getting up in 4 hours to go on a desert safari. (You’ll be seeing that on Instagram soon!)