A world is booming of people telling how to live a great life and achieve your dreams. Of how to be eternally happy and wake up with a kick in the ass, being motivated and inspired all the time.
But I've been given the opportunity to peek behind the curtain of some of them and I found they're not that incredible superheroes after all.
Important thing to acknowledge is that they have an incredible skill of putting themselves out there in a way that's attractive and seems like they're on top of their shit all the time. Now, this is good if their message is good, and I kind of support that and I'm going down that path myself. But today I want to talk about the downside of it. Something that is almost never discussed.
They're not their content.
Realize that whatever someone talks about, whatever idea they're trying to convey and impact the world with is just an idea after all. It probably has a great value, but it's an idea. We humans tend to beat ourselves up when not perfectly executing something or when we live below some ideal. If someone online gives us an advice, it's easy to assume that that's what they follow 100% of the time in their life.
This is really bad because their content is carefully picked material from their and others' deepest insights. And even if they "live it", a single sentence can contain a years of lessons and personal experience. And that's the exact reason why they want to pass the knowledge to others. We as human beings have a need of sharing things we discover with others and helping them out so they don't have to go through all the grind of it too. It's also important to note that even when they share something great, you can be sure that they are not following it all the time themselves. This is important to acknowledge because it's easy to have this perfect picture in mind, of someone that's trying to sell you a product or service. After all, that's the way they're trying to sell.
And I'm not telling you don't "fall" for it, I'm telling you to stop imagining a perfect life of someone. No one has it all figured out, but we assume they do if we see them having their shit together in just one area of life. Well, what else to assume? It only makes sense to do so and we do it subconsciously. It's called a "halo effect".
"High life"
Another thing "gurus" usually do is that they portray a life of a rockstar, but they don't show you hours and hours of hustling behind the laptop and doing the work they're not really most passionate about. Basically they want to show the best image of themselves, and that's why usually they take professional photos when they are happy, hyped about life, dressed really good, so it looks like they're on top of their shit. Also, a lot of them have people that advise them on how to set up their social media profile, so it looks as high-status as possible because that gives you more social proof which basically makes you trusted and being more liked.
This brings us to the point that your perception of who they are is not a coincidence. It was carefully made so they maximize the opportunity of you buying their program, mentoring or whatever. It creates a scarcity mindset and a place of lack, because these people basically study how to induce those states in others by using subtle psychological triggers.
In the end, maybe you should even go for it
All that is said matters mainly for one reason. It's important to be aware of all these factors so you can assess whether you really want to improve. However, if you're seeking out help, it's likely that you need it and it would be a good investment for you to actually buy what's being marketed at you, with awareness of everything that I wrote. After all, it's being selectively targeted at YOU, so the solution someone offers is probably a solution you at least THINK you need ;)