Friday, October 5, 2018

The Voices In My Head

Sometimes, Facebook is a huge time suck.

This is one of those times.

AND...

Sometimes, something good comes out of that time.

Peter T., a high school friend, posted this priceless question:

When a person hears "voices" in their head, why do they always say "KILL!" instead of buy a pet or bake some cookies?

It got me thinking. What do the voices in my head say? This was my response:

[two voices arguing] 
"I'm hungry."
"..."
"I'm hungry."
"Heat up some soup."
"I don't want soup, I want pizza!"
"You were so excited to make that soup, remember? And you thought it was very tasty when you were done. Have the soup."
"I don't want soup. How about sushi?"
"You don't want soup? How about the Bolognese sauce? Heat up the Bolognese and some linguini."
"But I'm hungry *nooooooow*..."
"It'll take longer for sushi or pizza to get there than it will to heat up soup or Bolognese."
"But I want pizza! Or sushi! We deserve a treat!"
"We were over our dining budget last month. We had to take that money out of our travel budget."
"I don't care. I'm hungry and I want pizza."
"Would you rather have pizza, or go to Rome?"
"..."
"Fine. I'll heat up the stupid soup."

I have this type of conversation in my head every day. Or every other day.

Epiphany!

Let's say I eat out on Wednesday. By the time Friday rolls around, it doesn't *feel* like it has only been two days because I've already been through the above mental argument at least four times.

For next time:

How do I short-circuit the *want*?