Want to help my dad ditch all the meaningless noise and better himself

[deek]

I will try to make this short and sweet. My dad is my best friend and I love him to death, but over the last couple years he has become more negative and letting things that don't matter affect him. Most notably, he lets himself get worked up over things he sees on Facebook and always feels he has to put his two cents in. This stuff DOESN'T MATTER.

He's a smoker and always makes comments to the effect of "that's the way it is, I'll probably die of cancer, I can't quit, blah blah blah." I understand this is a crazy bad habit that is so tough to break - and he has an addictive personality. But he has quit before. He's just failing to see the bigger picture as he gets older. I want to get him motivated about something.

The only TRUE joy I see in him anymore, when he is visibly happy and loving what he is doing is when we are fishing together, or when he is working with his guns and building ammo. Fishing is the one thing we still have in common. If I can get him to feel more of that in everyday life, I would be ecstatic.

Any good books to read for middle aged men? I'm also working on building him a health plan that he has told me he would try. I can't get too crazy with that until he's more dedicated to quitting smoking.

Anyway.. thanks for reading! Any insight would be much appreciated.

[EmFrugal]

Try some of Leo Babauta's work. He is the writer behind the Zen Habits blog. He was a smoker and started the blog to hold himself accountable as he made major life changes.

I really enjoyed his book, "The Power of Less." It helped me focus on what I value most in life and really opened my eyes to a whole new world of meaning. But this is all said with a caveat because the receiver of such a book really needs to want to change and be open minded about that. It's worth a shot though.

[Just Joe]

How much 24 hour news is he soaking up? Regardless of which network it is hard on the mind.

There was a documentary made by a daughter I think that documented the effects of too much conservative news on her father. He had a long commute each day and it was easy for him to listen to too much talk radio. It changed him for the worse. I think it was the format as much as the message. They just drill a topic into a person's consciousness with the beating a dead horse tactics.

He might be needing a low advertising, low news cycle diet for a while. Mix in some exercise and activities where the perp work is the fun.

I'm learning to cook for the family in my middle age years. Am beginning to appreciate the process ever more. Making French Press coffee is something I look forward to. Same with some of the chores and projects around the house. Not a rush job to get done. The joy comes from honing my skills. 

[the_fixer]

I have a friend that watches hours upon hours of network news each day and he gets really worked up and upset to the point of breaking ties with a long term friend that watches / listens to network news on the other side.

It has even taken a toll on our friendship and I try to stay out of the political back and forth that is going on.

So yes Facebook and all of the hate mongering media (on both sides) can have a major negative impact.

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