One Size Rarely Fits All
but gurus often tell you differently
I have written several things, including book reviews, about the concept of one size fits all.
It seems to be a concept widely used for “diets,” for telling people how they should live their lives, how they can be more productive, and sometimes for describing clothing.
From what I have learned over a rather long life, one size fits all is rarely true!
But I keep hearing it! Hmmmmmmmm
Some Examples
Diets
Ads for most “diet” products usually announce that “this is for you!” Yes YOU!
The ad is predicated on the idea that the person reading it wants to lose weight. That’s all they need to know about their audience.
Who does the ad show? Very often a young thin-ish person. You’re supposed to think wow if I take this product I am going to look like that.
That’s an age old advertising tactic: youth and sex sell – and it’s been like that since I can remember.
And you, the audience are expected to believe that it will work for you as there was no indication is was NOT meant for you and your body.
Lifestyles
Do you want to be the person who has fun, who has energy, who gets a lot of things done every day? [And makes huge amounts of money?]
Well?
- Then you must get up at 4:30AM and go to the gym or work out at home doing specific sets of exercises.
- Then you must meditate.
- Then you must take a very cold shower [ice cold] – better yet you should live near a cold lake and you should jump in.
- Then you must drink a lot of water – the gurus differ on how much you should drink but basically it’s a lot.
Work
To get the most done every day, you must start immediately after drinking all that water mentioned above. You must work for a certain amount of time take a certain length break and get right back to working setting a timer to make sure you stick to the schedule.
If you have a job where you work on somebody else’s schedule, then you have to fit all of this into your daily routine but best if you can keep your schedule as close to the same every day.
Also, don’t forget about your gratitude journal, your daily to do list or the other daily things that you’re supposed to do before your workday starts – although this could be part of what you do after drinking all that water.
I laugh at these because after drinking all that water the last thing I’m going to do is sit and make a to do list … I’m going to run to the bathroom.
Clothing
I have shopped at stores that had clothing labeled “one size.” I think what they mostly meant was the store was for people who wore sizes 6 to 8 or 10 because if you were bigger like a size 12 or 14 the clothing was not going to fit you. There were some stores that had baggy clothing. This was several years ago when baggier clothing was popular, so yeah, one size could fit many different body types, but basically clothing comes in sizes to fit the varied sizes that people. And clothing is so oddly sized anyway that a small in one brand is a medium in another and a large in yet another.
Here’s a shopper trying to find the “one” that fits them….
Moral? Caveat Emptor!!
I have to say that one of the benefits of growing up in a big city what is that you learned to not really get caught up in all the advertising because you were bombarded with it. We did pay attention to it, but we mocked it. That said I’ve still been caught by some of the advertising tricks even with a PhD in psychology, so yeah, it’s hard sometimes to not get caught up in the hype.
That’s what advertisers want to have happen.
It all means is that you have to be a very conscientious shopper with blinders on most of the time so that you can avoid the hype. If you can’t avoid the hype, you have to really think about what is being sold to you and ask if it sounds actually reasonable.
But especially – ask yourself if this is for everyone – is it really what I want for me?
Aren’t I individual enough to want something that seems a bit special?
Something that is for ME?
