Apparently, these or some of the expressions which are searched on the Internet quite a lot: “Change your life today”, “Change your life now”, “Change your life forever”. A bunch load of people are not living the lives they want to live, and they’re looking for ways to change that.
And I think that’s great. Unfortunately, for a lot of them, the search process in itself is setup for failure. Because they’re looking for quick fixes; for magic solutions to improve their lives: “Do this twice every day for 7 days and your entire life will turn around.”
In this era when things happen at great speeds, there is a fascination with fast and easy solutions which create big, lasting changes. And this fascination fuels an entire industry trying to provide them. An industry which for the most part, doesn’t even come close to fulfilling the “change your life today, now, forever” promise.
Let’s take a look at two very common examples:
1. Diets. There are hundreds of diets out there, which promise miracle results. Yet what they really provide is a relatively fast weight loss which does not last and is often very unhealthy.
Any person who lost a lot of weight and kept it that way can tell you what the solution that works is: eat less and exercise more, eat right and exercise right. Not just a couple of weeks, but as a constant part of your lifestyle. This way, you will slowly but healthy loose weight and you will keep it off you. It seems to be too hard for most people.
2. Subliminal tapes. There is a multi-million dollar industry of self-help tapes with subliminal messages on them, tapes which promise to change you life, improve your confidence, attract wealth and so on, just by listening to them. Because, we are told, the subliminal messages which you cannot hear consciously go directly to your subconscious mind and create powerful changes.
It certainly sounds great. There is just one problem: it doesn’t work! Every independent study on the effectiveness of subliminal tapes has reached the same conclusion: they are a waste of money. They only sell with the help of powerful and deceptive marketing.
As a general rule, quick fixes do not work to change your life. So why are they so popular? I think is has to do with a couple of things:
- People are educated into believing that there are special, secret tricks which if you discover, you can use to change your life today, now, forever.
- People don’t want to put a lot of time and effort into changing their lives, they lack the patience or the will, so they need to believe that quick fixes work.
- People have a generally shallow understanding of the principles that generate results, especially the connection between effort, persistence and success.
What does work? The effective solutions to change your life generally follow the same one fundamental pattern: they involve continuous personal development. They involve changing the outcome by improving your skills, attitudes, knowledge and behaviors in an active, gradual, constant and strategic way.
Continuous personal development promises to change your life, starting now but not in a moment. And there is one trait it has that quick fixes do not: it really, truly works.
Although the interest in changing one’s life is a wide spread one, the interest in continuous personal development is much narrower. So if you have this interest, and you don’t allow yourself to be tempted by the promise to change your life today, now, forever – my congratulations!
[adrotate group=”5″]
I think another reason that people gravitate to the quick fix is it lets them show that they are doing something about the problem they are trying to fix. This is especially true when people relay do not want to change there lives.
.-= Quinn´s last blog ..What I have been staring at this week =-.
It makes sense, It’s like “I’ve tried, it didn’t work, now let me go to sleep!” 🙂
Hi Eduard.
You are right about miracle diets. They sell very well though, from what I am assuming, as they are able to afford staying on TV and radio advertising. For now, they still have an audience that is lured by their efforts.
Subliminal tapes sure do sound great. It would probably be good to have them provide a free sample that should provide some sort of help, and then only if the sample works as described, would they then be purchased from. This could cut down on the tapes that have no value, which could be a large portion of them.
Continuous effort sure does trump quick-fix solutions any day of the week. It is hard though, and that is what keeps fewer in the competitive spectrum.
.-= Armen Shirvanian´s last blog ..Don’t Stop Doing What You Enjoy To Save Time =-.
Eduard,
I agree with your “As a general rule, quick fixes do not work to change your life.” but since so many people want quick fixes, they’re willing to pay for absurd products that make extraordinary claims.
We should understand that change does take time, and we have to embrace every bit of it.
.-= Ken Kurosawa´s last blog ..How to Satisfy Our Need to Belong =-.
I think the reason subliminal tapes don’t work is because they skip the conscious mind and try to get straight into the subconscious mind. Every new piece of information must first go through the conscious mind which requires a degree of concentration.
.-= Gordie´s last blog ..How To Use Goals, Autosuggestion, Commitment And Consistency. =-.
Fab post eduard, this is something I’ve learned the hard way on many occasions. People who fall for those selling techniques are under the illusion that the’s an easy way to fix themselves…what they don’t realise that the fix is easy but it just takes time and practise…there is no other substitute!
Merry Xmas!
.-= Amit Sodha – The Power Of Choice´s last blog ..Send Your Enthusiasm Skyrocketing This Xmas =-.
Armen, Ken, Gordie and Amit,
Thanks for all your comments. I think the more we can spread some healthy skepticism about some tools for life change, the more we can help people in this area.
Hi Eduard. I really enjoyed reading this post. I totally agree with you in that change doesn’t happen overnight. The example that I can most relate to is the one with self help tapes. Listening to them is comforting, but it doesn’t really do anything if you don’t take continuous action and apply it what you are listening to. You can have outside resources to help you change, but the greatest change has to come from within and doing this constantly everyday. Thanks for sharing and writing this. 🙂
Hey Eduard.
I’m with you on this one. Quick fixes don’t work, and the self-help industry milks people’s desire to have stuff change in the blink of an eye because in a fast food culture very few people have the focus and concentration to stay with anything for any length of time. THerefore the quick fix is imminently marketable.
Change on a deep level usually requires the creation of new neural pathways, or the re-activation of dormant pathways….this requires perseverance and repetition, both conscious, and eventually subconscious.
So, whereas spoken out loud affirmations and hypnosis can work powerfully over time, combined with behavioural changes, subliminals, especially audio subliminals, are as good as useless.
Steve
I heard a lot about subliminal tapes and totally agree, they don’t work. I think we as human beings are very impatient and some marketers can play really well on that. I also think that for the most part people want quick fix when they are not sure to begin with what they truly want in life. That leads to jumping from one miracle fix to another.
.-= Lana – DreamFollowers Blog´s last blog ..How To Spend Time With Yourself and Why. =-.