The Benefits of Thinking You’re Smart

When I was young, I hardly paid attention to what my parents said. I tried my best to learn just the bare minimum as required at school. Even what my friends said or thought wasn’t really put into much consideration.

A combination of “interesting parenting” and being born just a tad, or maybe a lot more, oversensitive developed an individual who was a bit overboard on the competitive side, and an introverted personality made for a cookie cutter rebel/loner. It was a great combination, I knew (and I was the only one), that I truly had an epically winning personality.

I remember the first time I was brought into a Casino in England, rolling in like a king where my Aunt’s friend had a VIP pass to the free food and drink that it offered, where one of the waiters taught me to my face the phrase “cheeky boy”. Looking back, being “cheeky”, led to many adventures that created the completely unique personality I am today.

CHEEKY EXHIBIT A

One of the interesting things I remember doing as a teenager, was really insulting and bitingly talk to every smoker I met. I made sure every single smoker I met who was killing me with second hand smoke, knew the level of carcinogens they were inhaling and exhaling, how it was destroying on a worse than nuclear level: themselves, myself, everyone around us and the many generations forthcoming on our lovely little planet earth.

CHEEKY BENEFIT NUMBER 1

I’ve actually learned how to help smokers stop smoking. How is this a benefit? It’s just something I’ve always wanted the ability to do. One thing (to begin the process) that’s fun for me to do is to heavily encourage the person to smoke it up as much as possible through conversation, and tastefully exaggerate the benefits of smoking so much so that mr. purple will feel guilty if I would begin smoking because of their influence.

Either that, or he/she will try to change the topic or talk about how it actually blocks them from enjoying certain foods/makes their teeth yellower/odorizes their clothes/ etc. and then I innocently suggest in a cheerful way to “why not just stop smoking?”… ‘Pause for effect’… *mutual laughter*.

It doesn’t work every time, but when it does inspire healthy and happy change to these people and their families, it’s truly heartwarming.

CHEEKY EXHIBIT B

This really wouldn’t be considered “cheeky” in many circles, however, it depends on the kind of family and friends you have around you. I didn’t really find any supporters of my dietary change until half a year since I began it.

I at one point in my life, before I quit, became completely vegan on a whim after being influenced by some random blogger whom I admired. Of course, I told everyone how I was doing it to help the world, and to encourage others to stop hurting animals, and the list of pro-vegan facts I got off Google, but really, I just did it for fun. It made for some funny conversations, where family would remind me of how I loved “succulent tasting lobster” or “delectably fine Vancouver crab” by subtly placing it in front of me. I especially loved how my mother put meat under the “completely vegan salad” she made me. I really felt the love

CHEEKY BENEFIT NUMBER 2

I’m now one of the healthiest people I know, if not the healthiest. It’s great, I love it, I can eat whatever I want, intuitively knowing what foods consist of what ingredients (you read the ingredient list of almost every store brought item when you begin being a vegan), and just naturally have a tendency to lean towards healthy organic foodstuffs, with meat or otherwise.

CHEEKY EXHIBIT C

I don’t know if I would call this cheeky, but I’m sure there are a few whom it would agree that there’s an element of that in youthful idealism.

It’s funny, I wanted to change the world for the better. And as a Chinese person, proud to be Chinese, specifically, China! If you read the first part of this article, you would know that at one point in my life I really hated cigarette smokers. So, my vision, as a hopeful and rather naïve young man back in the day, was to transform all Chinese people into non-smokers.

CHEEKY BENEFIT NUMBER 3

My vision has grown, quite dramatically, and I’m very grateful to my younger self for the passion to make the world healthier. Nowadays, I’m not really for or against what type of people, or what they do, or how they do it. My thinking has grown a little since then. People can’t be told (and in fact they hate it with a passion) what to do, they need to be charmed, tastefully, with actions and words and good energy combined with trust. And so I’ve learned even my own vision can’t be conveyed directly, as words are so inadequate, however it’s better to sometimes say something rather than nothing.

My current vision is influenced by 2 of the best parented and managed families I’ve seen in Toronto. I can see a community strong enough, to be influenced by the vibe of families like these 2 awesome families I’ve seen, where there was always a spirit of generosity that extended to strangers, a trust that really transcends words (and needs to be seen for effect), and a concentrated mutually combined energy created to inspire everyone around. Maybe these families wouldn’t articulate it in quite so many words, but I’m a mouthful and that hasn’t really changed since forever

With my growing vision, comes a maturity and a sense of peace and contentment about who I am as a person. Combined with my desire for mutual growth, I don’t just sit there, I grow passionately and encourage everyone around me to be inspired to grow as well, so that we can be in on the joy of life together.

There are few things I enjoy more than simply to shoot off an awesome, super inspiring article for the average SpiritSentient reader to enjoy and learn from. Gee, I wonder what benefit awaits me now