DrContrarian

There are so many books, blogs, speakers and gurus that emphasise a few ‘mantras, millions of titles, the same old story: Believe in yourself Follow your hear and your passion and success will follow (i.e. don’t do if for the money) Stay true to yourself/Stay true to your brand Stay focussed/ Be disciplined You must have a unique selling proposition/ a niche Have a goal/ set your objectives (and write it down and read them every day) Over the coming weeks I want to debunk some of these myths/ beliefs, but for today, all I want ask is whether all these people could possibly be right, or whether these observations are simply obvious and logical (very hard for the guru followers to argue with) and that we started to believe these things through sheer repetition, rather than because of any veracity.

It would be disingenuous of me to state that I am (want to) debunk this as a myth, because I am not going to completely go the opposite way and say that you should NOT believe in yourself. But I would like to put it into perspective. Self-doubt is a good thing. Roger Federer continues to play tournament after tournament and cherishes every win exactly because he has a little of doubt as to whether he will succeed. If he had no doubt, he would stop playing because there was no joy in winning and no challenge to conquer. It is exactly because there is a risk of losing that people go out and play. No sane adult will go to Little Athletics meetings and race against the toddlers. If it was only about the importance of winning, that is what we could do. But winning is made desirable and special exactly because it is about overcoming the fear of losing and conquering the self-doubt. If you find yourself in a state of complete and utter confidence (and you are being truthful) then you are n...

It would be disingenuous of me to state that I am (want to) debunk this as a myth, because I am not going to completely go the opposite way and say that you should NOT believe in yourself. But I would like to put it into perspective. Self-doubt is a good thing. Roger Federer continues to play tournament after tournament and cherishes every win exactly because he has a little of doubt as to whether he will succeed. If he had no doubt, he would stop playing because there was no joy in winning and no challenge to conquer. It is exactly because there is a risk of losing that people go out and play. No sane adult will go to Little Athletics meetings and race against the toddlers. If it was only about the importance of winning, that is what we could do. But winning is made desirable and special exactly because it is about overcoming the fear of losing and conquering the self-doubt. If you find yourself in a state of complete and utter confidence (and you are being truthful) then you are n...

The Secret continues to gain traction. For every disciple there seems to be a dozen detractors. The basic response of the unbelievers is simply a ‘rational’ reaction that scoffs at the notion of people being luck magnets. Being able to attract abundance through sheer will is just too close to ‘magic’ to be realistic. There are many very credible naysayers, but there are equally powerful proponents of ‘the secret’. Who to believe? Like any good sect, that adopts the best bits from traditional religion but leaves out the inconvenient bits, the secret does the same with reality. It is true that we are simply manifestations of energy. But the truth is also that opposites attract (in the real world of positive and negative poles of magnets). By spinning ourselves into a ‘positive’ state of expectation, we will sure attract the opposite if science is anything to go by? It is true that people are by and large responsible for their own miserably lives, but the truth is also that control...

The Secret continues to gain traction. For every disciple there seems to be a dozen detractors. The basic response of the unbelievers is simply a ‘rational’ reaction that scoffs at the notion of people being luck magnets. Being able to attract abundance through sheer will is just too close to ‘magic’ to be realistic. There are many very credible naysayers, but there are equally powerful proponents of ‘the secret’. Who to believe? Like any good sect, that adopts the best bits from traditional religion but leaves out the inconvenient bits, the secret does the same with reality. It is true that we are simply manifestations of energy. But the truth is also that opposites attract (in the real world of positive and negative poles of magnets). By spinning ourselves into a ‘positive’ state of expectation, we will sure attract the opposite if science is anything to go by? It is true that people are by and large responsible for their own miserably lives, but the truth is also that control...