I see nothing wrong with gambling on horses or drinking beer all day. One will quickly put you into debt and the other will quickly put you in a grave, of course, but who cares?

Look, I spent many years of my life quite literally telling people what they needed to do achieve their goals and trying to keep them from making short-term decisions that were quite obviously poor.

"Don't get back together with him, I guarantee within a month he'll leave you again and you'll be screwed." "I know you hate your job, but stop cussing at your boss until you find a new one!"

I have a pretty solid track record of being right. I used to judge people pretty harshly when they made obviously stupid life decisions that turned out to bite them in the ass, but I realized all it accomplished was making me incredibly cynical and untrusting towards anyone to do the "right" thing; whatever I happened to define as "right" that is. Now, I just live and let live. As long as someone's decision doesn't affect me I am not going to recommend against it. I'm also not going to make distinctions between "drinking all day" and "tending to a garden all day" -- they're both equally acceptable to me. Drinking all day while tending to a garden sounds like it could prove entertaining.

Live and let live works for me too. I'm happy to offer other people advice, what they do with that advice is up to them. On the flip side, I'm going to live my life how I want, regardless of other people's opinions.

As you point out, life's too short to spend it being cynical and unhappy.