You should

It is most irritating when people lecture us on how we 'should' behave
.
Most of us know pretty well how we should behave
.
We really do know what we should be doing
.
It is the execution that is the problem not the absence of knowledge
.
The moralising of people who tell 'you should' floss daily
.
That 'you should' eat an apple every day
.
'You should' work out regularly or visit the gym
.
First though it is not happening
.
For all our good intentions we are not flossing we are not working out
.
Lectures do not do it for most of us
.
Look at those with a cigarette addiction
.
For the best way to understand how we could be rational in our perception of the risks and probabilities and at the same time be foolish while acting on them would be to have a conversation with a cigarette smoker
.
Few cigarette smokers remain unaware of the lung cancer risks of their addiction to smoking
.
As someone said if you remain unconvinced then take a look at the huddling smoking crowd outside the service entrance to the Sloane Memorial Kettering Cancer Center in New York
.
You will see dozens of cancer nurses and perhaps doctors standing outside the entrance with cigarettes in their hands as hopeless patients are wheeled in for their treatments
.
Cigarette smokers are not particularly abnormal humans just those with an unfortunately high risk and very visible and smelly addiction

So where is the truth?

Until we want to stop we will not stop

First statement

Only when we find a higher hierarchy can we really stop or change an addiction

The second

A higher hierarchy is wanting life long health more than a cigarette now

Once we are honest with ourselves we can deal with addiction

The third

Most addicts unfortunately live in their own world of perceptions

A world of their own creation

A world where no one can interfere with their desires

Their desires remain whatever we might say or do

So we come back to seeing that we do not change until we want to change

We do not stop until we truly want to stop and that's the bottom line

'You should' does nothing for anyone until they ask for help

Until then 'you should' had better stay inside you