Hey Reader,

I’ve switched things up in my life.

Had to.

At the dermatologist, where I’ve started going for variously painful and costly laser treatments and anything else that will keep me looking fresh but not like one of the trout-pout/surprise-brows set on Real Housewives of Miami, I asked the doctor what she could do about the fine lines starting to appear around my mouth.

She leaned in. “Do you smoke?”

“No!” I said, indignant. I’ve only taken one drag on a cigarette in my life.

Anytime I’ve ever heard smoking ages you, I’ve raised my eyebrows smugly (probably causing wrinkles) and thought, “There’s one problem I’ll never have.”

It fits my revenge-of-the-nerds narrative. Many of those mean girls in high school who snuck out during free periods to smoke at the corner diner, Le Panto’s, and thought they were SO COOL, formed lifelong smoking habits.

Along with other, more serious consequences I don’t wish on anyone, I knew they were likely to develop marionette lines on the sides of their mouth (think Chuckie) and upper lip wrinkles that would eventually make their lipstick feather like your grandma’s.

But here I am, starting to see those lines around my own self-satisfied, never-been-a-smoker mouth.

WHY?

I’ll tell you why. Next question the doctor asked: “Do you sip a lot through a straw?”

Facepalm. FML.

For decades now, coming home from what I call “my rounds” with an iced coffee in hand has been a fixed — you might say, religious — part of my morning routine.

I can’t remember a workday I didn’t spend sucking my beloved iced coffee through that equally beloved straw. It’s basically my baby bottle.

But today, I had to start a new habit. I asked for my iced coffee in a paper cup, so I could attach the sippy lid instead of the plastic one with the straw-ready butthole in the center.

(This is at O Cafe, where they use biodegradable everything, including their plastic straws, FYI.)

Even tiny changes are tough for me. I like things the way I like them.

But I’m SUPER motivated by my vanity. So, from today on, I’ll do things differently. Goodbye straws.

Please respect my privacy during this time of grieving. It’s like losing a lover.

I’m telling you this not only for your sympathies (thank you) or as a PSA to those whose mouths spend the day puckered hazardously around an 8.5-inch tube pushed on us, the unsuspecting public, by Big Latte…

…But also as a reminder to think about what would motivate someone to make the change or commitment your product, service, or pet cause might require.

What information — a la “sipping through a straw is as bad for your face as smoking” — might wake them up, and provide urgency? (Something we talk about in my copywriting program with Marie Forleo, The Copy Cure, coming soon!)

What might they miss out on if they don’t take action now?

It might be as simple as their size selling out, or as ominous as being in the same place in their lives one year from now. (Or *gasp* a more wrinkly one.)

xoLaura

PS - If you haven’t noticed, I’m highly motivated by fear. It’s far from my favorite emotion, but whatever gets me off my ass, right? So, instead of envying fearless people, pity them for lacking this “superpower.” My great friend Farnoosh will show you why you should in her hilarious and helpful new book, A Healthy State of Panic. Buy your copy stat; it’s just out, and her first-week sales are EVERYTHING.

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