How a Dr Pepper Commercial Gave Me a New Attitude

I recently saw a Dr Pepper commercial that gave me a wake up call and helped me get a better attitude. I don't usually watch commercials, in fact I go out of my way to avoid them, but on this particular day I sat still during the commercial break. I'm a firm believer that the things we need to hear can come to us from all kinds of places, and in all forms, and on this day, that form was a Dr Pepper commercial.

This life-altering Dr Pepper commercial, which, by the way, I'd seen several times before, features Dr Dre coming to a party where people are dancing to fast music which is being played by a DJ. He puts a can of Dr Pepper on the turntable and then says that "slow is better." Dr Pepper, he says, tastes better when you drink it slow.

I love Dr Pepper-it's my favorite drink (in its diet version), and Dr Dre is right. Dr Pepper does taste better when you drink it slow. But somewhere along the line in the past couple of months, I guess, I'd forgotten that. I'd been drinking my Dr Pepper fast. So fast that I hadn't really been tasting it at all. I could barely tell the difference between my regular, cherry, and cherry vanilla Dr Pepper. I certainly hadn't been enjoying it.

So along comes this Dr Pepper commercial that makes me realize I've been drinking my Pepper too fast, and not enjoying all 23 flavors that make up the wonderfully unique flavor that is Dr Pepper. I'd been depriving myself not only of the wonderful taste, but of something that I enjoy. So now, I've been drinking my Dr Pepper slower, letting it sit on my tongue a little bit before I swallow it down, and enjoying it.

Okay, an interesting story, but that's a wake up call? An attitude adjustment?

No, that's what came next, as I was drinking my first Dr Pepper-slowly-after seeing that commercial. Sipping it, and enjoying the taste, I realized that it wasn't just Dr Pepper that I wasn't taking my time with.

I used to be a "stop and smell the roses" person. I'd almost always be lagging behind on a walk, or lingering longer than other people in front of a garden or tree or flower. But not lately. I was doing things to be done with them, and then moving on to the next thing that needed to be done.

And that's what that Dr Pepper commercial helped me see. It had been a while since I had just gone slowly with something, taken my time with whatever I was doing, paid attention, and enjoyed it.

I hadn't been tasting all the flavors of life, I hadn't been going slowly. "Slow is better" doesn't just apply to Dr Pepper. It applies to life. And a short Dr Pepper commercial reminded me of that fact.