Discipline

i think you are making this up.

this guy sounds like a tool

anthony don't die before yr fifty!

yeah this guy sounds like he takes life far too seriously. there is nothing wrong with doing things you enjoy, as long as it doesn't seriously problematise yr life. i suggest u take yr docs advice on changing yr eating habits (cos we don't want you to die) but otherwise you could continue trying to enjoy yr life.

Hmmmm. I'm frequently called a workaholic, but I'm happy that way. People shouldn't assume that all work and little play makes Jack a dull boy. I work long hours, typically 7 days a week, but I sustain that by blurring the lines between work and play. e.g., I do a lot of photography and graphics activities which are not quite work nor play. [This is beginning to sound like an unconvincing excuse for a pitiful existence, but just as long as I can convince myself, I'll run with it.] The long hours are also tolerable, because if I work hard I can be of assistance to others. There's a substantial difference between working 20hrs a week in a meaningless job and working 80hrs a week in a job where you can make a difference.

Perhaps, therefore, the bloke that Anthony met was not a tool, but rather someone who had strived to find his perfect fulcrum in an otherwise unbalanced world. For some people, of course, perfection might just be poor diet, unenlightening work and lengthy holidays. I'm happy for them too.

He'll have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome by the time he's 32.

You're scaring me! I didn't know it was bad to eat after 2 (a.m., I assume), I would have thought smoking twice a week was happily moderate, and I still can't imagine what sort of diet could get one that dire a warning from a doctor. And the exercise refuses to happen, shamefully.

offtopic: you should watch it using the name 'debaser' in nz...unless you are 'd.baser' you wouldn't wanna be mistaken for him

you should watch it using the name 'debaser' in nz...unless you are 'd.baser' you wouldn't wanna be mistaken for him

Oh sigh - I don't know d.baser - Is he a scoundrel? "debaser" just happened to be the (Pixies) song which was playing on the stereo the first time I posted in ILE (and it was kinda fitting cos I play the base) => Hencefoward for another fretfull search for an unused pseudonym.

yeah, d. baser is darryl baser, he's supposedly a music journalist. not a very good one in other words. but its okay he only writes for the ODT.

He sounds like my mother. For a long time I felt as though I had to mirror my mother's life. Have the same ambitions, work the same hours,... But I woke up and realized you have to make your own decisions. Decide what makes you happiest (though of course at the same time try to have some healthy lifestyle). A bad eating pattern will cut off your life (and happiness) so try to work at solving that, Anthony. :-)

moderation in all things.

You don't need a plan and you don't need goals. If you choose to live for pleasure that's great. It's up to you.

But you should take any health advice seriously - there will be no pleasure in years of unnecessary ill-health. Get in shape and you'll have MORE fun, for longer.

There doesn't seem to be balance in either lifestyle you describe anthony. The guy with the plan, he is too disciplined, in the long run, he may regret it, it doesn't sound very fun. And for you, if you think changing your diet or drinking less will help, then I say that you should try it. Nothing wrong with long vacations!

All that stuff about goals sounds like it's from one of those self- help books.

Life plan = to be happy and reasonably healthy, but not to the extent where living living becomes a joyless quest for prefection.

If you're ambitious then planning is obviously sensible. If you're not then it seems kind of pointless. I haven't got any great ambitions myself and on the whole it doesn't bother me. Admittedly, I occasionally do get plagued by feelings of underachievement, but I don't think setting up an arbitrary goal to aim at is going to make these go away.

I am completely mystified as to what we might find desirable in this man's life - where is his pleasure, what is there in this to make anyone happy? My suspicion is that people who want that kind of life find that kind of life, and people who don't don't want it. I couldn't live like that, and I don't want to.

And I bet your diet is no worse than mine, Anthony. Mind, we don't know that I'll make 50, of course.

Anthony - if your diet and lifestyle is unhealthy you should do something about it. You know, eat healthily, drink less (although by "drink like a fish" do you mean that the way your Southern neighbours do, as in you have three Buds on a saturday night, maybe four if your're going mad?), etc.

However, that guy you met sounds like a Nazi.

Since when is eating after 2 a bad idea? also, the idea that you are seriously shortening your life by smoking dope twice a week is laughable. As, ultimately, is the idea that there is something wrong with living life for pleasure.