SELF IMPROVEMENT CONTENT IS STILL JUST CONTENT

self-improvement is just content like any other until…

I have always been obsessed with becoming the best version of myself, just like many of us. My Youtube search history is full of searches like; how get out of your comfort zone, how to build discipline, how to build muscle etc. I had watched hundreds of such videos until I realized something, though my mentality and attitude towards life had gradually shifted as a result of the education from his type of content, I was still in the same position I had always been physically. I had become a self-improvement junkie.

It came to a point where I had subscribed to youtubers in the self-improvement niche and was just waiting for them to drop videos. Waiting for them to drop videos. My mind had become used to viewing this type of content and at this point it was just some type of Netflix. Watching another person level up and share knowledge but instead of me absorbing and using that as fuel to crash my goals, I was getting inspired and just moving on to the next hoping to get the same. The better their story the more entertained I was getting.

Three years had passed since I started consuming self-improvement content. Reading blogposts, articles and books, watching Youtube and listening to podcasts yet my life physically was still the same. It is then that I realized that it was no one else’s fault but mine. My inaction was to blame. I had been just consuming this content as a way to cheat myself that I was somewhat trying to improve the quality of my life while in reality I was doing nothing. I also had a small collection of nice books yet no changes. My wisdom had increased, I had learned a lot, but what is the point of having all the knowledge and not putting it to work? action speaks louder than words right?

Among the books I had, was How to Win friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. I had read it like twice before. One day as I was just skimming through it, bored, I came across a paragraph that ended with the words… For the great aim of education is not knowledge but action. These words hit me like a train. I then realized, all this content and books I had been consuming are like instructions, the author is putting down actionable steps, which you are supposed to take action in order to see results.

Unfortunately, I know I’m not the only one who was living this way, many individuals live their lives like this, consuming self-improvement content and when it dawns on them that nothing in their lives has changed, they start blaming every other thing but themselves and worse, attacking the messenger. You probably see it too. Guys on a creator’s comment section just hating and being pessimistic. Bro, sis, it’s all your fault. The messenger passed the message and its effects depend entirely on you.

It is easier to hate and blame than it is to take action to improve your life.

The comfort zone is not that easy to leave if you are used to living too soft of a lifestyle. Self-improvement content mostly shows you what life is like outside the comfort zone. The results and some wise advice are usually displayed the most in self-improvement content but the real work is usually behind the scenes. Like the way a duck appears calm on the surface but it’s pedaling its feet like crazy underneath, that’s how the content is you only see what the author uploads, so the moment you try for yourself you find that its way too hard or it takes too long and just go back to being a spectator.