Let’s be honest—most of us already know what we’re supposed to do.
Exercise regularly. Eat your bhindi and not just Paneer Butter Masal. Sleep before midnight. Spend less money trying to impress people who don’t care.
You’ve heard it all. I’ve heard it all. We could recite this advice backward in our sleep.
But do we follow it?
Of course not. Because our ego whispers: “Arre yaar, I’m different. My situation is unique. My metabolism is special. My stress is on another level.”
That’s why we flock to anything labeled custom-made.
- Bespoke diet charts with fancy colors.
- Personalised investment plans with graphs that look like rocket science.
- Exclusive gym routines that cost more than your annual chai budget.
Why? Because “custom made” strokes our egos. It convinces us that the standard advice is for other people—the “general” masses. Not for us, the exclusive, limited-edition humans.
But here’s a plot twist: if you zoom out and watch humanity over the last few centuries, we’re all running the same script.
We have the same:
- Fears (What if I fail?)
- Greed (What if I miss out?)
- Envy (Why is Sharmaji’s son already retiring at forty?)
We keep reinventing the same wheel, adding some neon paint to make it look “new.”
Think about it—when you join a new group, you first try to blend in. You wear the same clothes, use the same lingo, laugh at the same jokes. Then, once you feel accepted, you start itching to stand out—buying limited-edition shoes or pretending you’ve always been a connoisseur of Greek yogurt.
How can both these instincts coexist? How can we be desperate to fit in and desperate to be unique?
It’s simple: we’re human. Contradiction is our default setting.
But here’s where the trouble starts. We start rejecting timeless advice because it feels too ordinary. Too basic. Too common.
Like, “If everyone else is doing it, surely I need something fancier?”
No, you don’t.
Good advice doesn’t care about your need to feel special. It just works.
Saving a chunk of your income—still works.
Walking every morning—still works.
Eating more vegetables—still works.
Switching off your phone before bed—still works.
No app subscription required.
So maybe it’s time to stop hunting for that magical, custom-tailored, made-for-your-rare-DNA solution. Maybe it’s time to trust the boring, universal wisdom that has survived the test of time—and stubborn humans.
Because in the end, there are only two possibilities:
- The advice works for you.
- Or it doesn’t.
That’s it.
Your uniqueness doesn’t make you immune to common sense. It just makes you more creative at avoiding it.
So go ahead—lift those dusty dumbbells. Put your money somewhere safe. Eat some real food instead of rainbow-colored snacks.
It’s the same advice your grandfather followed. And it worked pretty well for him, didn’t it?
No special pass required.
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