In times like these, any reason to smile or chuckle is worth its weight in gold. Some of my favorite headlines of the past week include:
- Bloomberg – “Americans Are Stocking Up on ‘Comfort Booze’”
- Yahoo Finance – “Wine Store Sales Surge…”
- Forbes – “Online Wine Sales Are Soaring…”
I just have to wonder, was the act of having to get up and go to work keeping Americans sober? Let’s face it, you can set the camera for your Zoom meeting a little further back to help hide the signs of that last glass of wine! Or have some “technical difficulty” and have to just dial in instead.
My theory doesn’t hold up so well when put in context of this stressful environment. It’s probably more likely that people are anxious, worried, tired and need a little extra pour at the end of a long day. Regardless though, it still makes for a good title. Since we are speaking about consumption, here are a couple other tips for helping to keep your nerves in check:
- Lower your consumption of screen time. The world is in no better or worse shape from one minute to the next. If you’re anything like me, you do enough worrying on your own without the help of a 24 hour news cycle chirping in your ear every 5 seconds.
- Increase your consumption of future thinking. Make a list of all the things you are going to do as soon as the smoke clears.
- If you are really feeling up for it, increase your consumption of boredom. Find a topic, documentary or book that you have ABSOLUTELY no interest in and dive in deep. You may not make it far, but you also may learn something new and distract yourself at the same time.
I leave you with my favorite quote of all time from Goethe, “Nothing is worth more than this day.”
Happy Friday!