The Toxic World Of Self-Help

“Ambiguity and confusion without resolution is how motivational and self-help programs keep you hooked endlessly.”

Majority of motivational, self-help, and even therapy and other coaching programs operate by capitalizing on the need for people to improve their lives. Hence why, many, attract their targets via emotionally appealing promises that keep people engaged indefinitely without reaching any finality or resolution. Some of the common strategies and logical-fallacies deployed by these programs to keep people hooked are:

• Appeal to emotions, by telling people what they want to hear instead of what they need to hear.
• Appeal to popularity, and appeal to tradition, by claiming because something is believed by many or because something has been accepted from old and ancient times, it must be true.
• Ambiguity and confusion, by using word-salad and other sophisticated sounding claims that have no factual value or real life applicability.
• Broad, vague, and mystical and supernatural claims and assignment of non-existent agencies to distract the focus away into imaginary and endless rabbit-holes.
• Making false-promises and exaggerated-claims that once mastered, people’s lives will be drastically improved and they will unlock the secret to happiness and success.

And ultimately, when after extensive time, effort, and money, you give up on these programs, you are blamed for your lack of progress and failure because you didn’t try hard enough and because you didn’t have faith in what you were doing.

“If you committed to something that you can’t clearly identify its target; you are the target.”