Something that I can’t quite explain that takes place frequently on Instagram (not on LinkedIn or TikTok) is the amount of long, useless, and polished comments (200+ comments per post) that some people suddenly start getting out of nowhere, during a certain period of rapid growth. We’re talking about people below 10k. And many of them are below 4k. And then the phenomenal rate of growth stops at 50k followers or so. If that is not the result of being part of an engagement group, I don’t know what could be.

The problem is that these people always claim to have grown organically and authentically, not through any twisted methods. And their growth could not be entirely attributed to reels. They get that same amount and kind of engagement with disregard to the type of post they make. And most of the comments and likes they get are made by others who are already running businesses on Instagram. There are almost no consumers in the comments section, or people who are not expecting any kind of growth from such comments, or people who are not commenting for the sake of exposure to attract others to their own page, or expecting the same engagement back at some point.

Something is seriously wrong with all of this. It is not only hugely against the terms of service of Instagram and virtually everywhere else as well, it just doesn’t feel right. It is not authentic by any stretch of the imagination.

I’m sorry, you didn’t get the memo?

Develop new interests in things that make you excited for living in general, outside of the category of providing others with value. Stuff that you’d do anyway for its own sake, and is non-monetizable. You’re a grown up now. You cannot expect to have the same interests that you had when you were a teenager or a young adult in your twenties. This is not a case of a general loss of interest in all activities that were previously interesting to you in the past, due to depression, necessarily. This is just you lacking the interests of a grown up. You’re not a kid anymore, and it is only normal to find yourself no longer considering Call of Duty to be the center of the universe or the ultimate purpose of life.

This is not because you are supposed to have totally different interests for every decade or five years of your life. This is about you not having developed the interests of a grown up yet.

One of the biggest limiting factors on your creativity and productivity is the fact that you are afraid of saying something that will turn out to be not true at some point in the future, whether that is because science might discover something new someday, or because the truth is out there, already well-known by a lot of people who speak on the subject, but you are unaware of it for some reason. You will then remain reluctant to speak your mind and express your thoughts or opinions on the subject of discussion here because you don’t want to embarrass yourself or make a fool out of yourself. This is so wrong on so many levels, most fascinating of which is the fact that as a creative individual, you need to put or lay out what you think or know about the topic of question before you can learn anything new about it. Your creative energy is not a reflection or a direct result of learning or your knowledge. It is a force that exists on its own, which can be activated and stimulated by learning, researching, and exploring, but is not a reflection or a direct result of these things. These things only serve as an awakening force for your inner creative forces. That’s why you need to read a ton in order to stimulate your creativity, but it is not saying what you’ve learned in your own words. You did not arrive at your new conclusions because of the new information only. It’s mainly because your mind decided to think and do its job as a result of environmental exposure to stimulating material that was provocative enough for it to bother working. The new answers and conclusions you may arrive at will in countless cases have nothing to do with what you’re reading or what you’ve recently learned, but you could have never arrived at such conclusions, observations, opinions, ideas, or thoughts if it weren’t for the stimulating effect of reading or being exposed to the creative work of others.

Your reluctance to wait until you know everything before you speak on the subject is due to the assumption or belief that you only write what you know or talk about something because there’s nothing about the topic being discussed that you don’t already know to the fullest extent. That is a major limiting belief that you cannot afford to hold if you intend to reach your full potential as a creative individual.

It’s okay to say something wrong. Just make sure you say what you’ve learned is the right thing later on the moment it comes to your attention.

Everybody on TikTok now is focused on speaking in front of the camera like they’re delivering a speech or friendly talking to us about the subject they are discussing. It’s not happening on Instagram except in what used to be IGTV. Reels are all about features, transitions, funny audio, which makes it pure entertainment if it weren’t for the caption. This is why people were hesitant to join TikTok in the past. Now Reels have become what people are escaping to TikTok from everywhere else because of.

It’s actually way worse for the majority of people. Stop convincing others to escape their job life and become like us. It will be like a death sentence for them.

I noticed that all people who had a good paying job had no problem with anything that we can’t stand about having a regular job. This made me realize I don’t belong there. I burnt-out after 15 minutes through a single shift. They are happy over there, and they are laughing at us. We’re not the same thing.

Don’t blame me for being too creative. I get my inspiration from the collective unconscious.

“I can hear you.” – Your unconscious mind

Fix your intentions.

One of the reasons why your mind hates you is because it knows your real intentions behind everything you do or don’t do.

You cannot hide your thoughts from your mind.

Everybody else won’t hate you as much, because they don’t know the truth about you and your intentions.

The majority of people who think they have imposter syndrome don’t actually have imposter syndrome. They are just imposters. You just can’t prove it. But deep down they know the truth. Deep down they know they don’t give a damn. They just want the fame, the money, the recognition. Even if they didn’t do anything to deserve it that is corresponding to that level of success. They just want to get there even if they don’t belong there, even if they don’t have what it takes. They don’t want to change. They have a phobia of getting better, because it implies that they are not perfect and super duper special from the start. They are faking it till they make it. That is not imposter syndrome. That is just imposter.

“I don’t spend time criticizing other people. I’m too busy criticizing me.” – Grant Cardone

Don’t be confused.

You are enough, awesome, worthy, and there’s nothing wrong with you.

But you need to improve in perpetuity.

If you are satisfied with how amazing you already are, you will not even notice what you’re missing by not aspiring to get better.

You will always remain where you are, without even being aware of what you’re missing, because you think you’re already great, and you’re satisfied with being the way you are forever.

I don’t want you to burnout more often.

I want you to get better, so that you start burning out less frequently.

A few random thoughts.

Distinguish between normal anxiety and anxiety as a disorder or a pathological symptom. The latter is not okay and has no value.

The majority of people who think they’re a personal brand are actually just a business brand.

Don’t forget that you’re still establishing your identity, if you’re still in your twenties or can’t seem to want to take a break to recuperate as if becoming that new person you want to be is an emergency. And you’re right. You won’t get a second chance. If you slack off for too long in your formative years, there’s no turning back. It’s now or never. Don’t take your current passion for granted. Make the most out of it.

After a while whatever that was monitoring your own thoughts as an outsider starts developing its own endless thoughts.

When someone criticizes you after telling them your goals, they are being honest here in telling you how much they hate you and what’s good for you. Believe them. They’re not lying. Don’t try to appease them by letting go of your goals though. They’ll keep hating you anyway, even if they’re more rich and successful than you currently are.

You don’t hold yourself back from expressing yourself because some people would be uninterested in what you have to say.

Just make sure you’re talking to the right people. You don’t want your mind to perceive you as wasting your time whenever you’re speaking your truth.

Find a healthy outlet or else your body will definitely find unhealthy ways to sublimate those repressed emotions. There’s a reason I sound angry in all my writings.

If a platform is making you feel creepy and like you’re selling your soul to the devil, you shouldn’t consider it for the time being.

Notice the pressure of the end of the year approaching and you trying to cram up what would make the year look good on paper before it’s over. Tread lightly.

Pleasure should be the main course, not “dessert” if there’s any room left for it.

“If you can’t deliver enough value with your free content, it’s hard to believe your offer is anything special.” – Mkclaura

“You’re never gonna get rid of the stress in your life.” – Mel Robbins

“You know the funny thing is, most people don’t even like themselves. In fact, most people hate themselves. So why the fuck would you care if they like you?” – Adam Cam (Savage wisdom)

Those who work so hard to attack you, most likely know you’re already better than them, and hence the reward they get from destroying something beautiful.

You think they are not coming to your posts but still they go to other people’s posts because others are making better posts than you. They are going there because others go there and they want to gain more followers. There’s nothing wrong with your content. Keep going. You’re not that bad.

They are chasing traffic. They are not over there because other people’s content is better than yours. Don’t change who you are or what you do to appease the market.

There’s no market in the first place. Everybody is just chasing money. Don’t betray your most authentic self.

There’s something profoundly wrong with undermining the importance of happiness and pleasure.

It’s not about arrogance. It’s about countering negative beliefs about yourself by replacing them with the positive ones, because beliefs about yourself cannot remain empty or neutral.

When you understand that you can lack belief in yourself even when you know you are more than capable, you’ll understand how the reverse can be true.

You can certainly believe in yourself even when you know you are not capable enough, because establishing that belief is the only way to avoid the existence of its opposite.

Your mind doesn’t know how hard it’s working while it’s still working. It has to stop that first in order for it to realize how heavy the lifting it was engaged in previously was. Most likely this is due to a natural focus on actually doing the work instead of looking at itself while it’s doing the work. Evaluating its performance and how hard it’s working at the moment is a distinct task in and of itself, which when fully focused on whatever exercise you’re performing at a maximal level of mental workout, your mind cannot engage in at the moment because you’re fully occupied already, or cannot afford to give it any of your attention. That might make sense theoretically, but it seems that your brain cannot know what was being turned on until it has the luxury of turning it off and on at will in order to feel the difference. Either your brain has no idea what’s going on, has no chance of paying attention to it while it’s doing the heavy lifting, or takes it for granted to the extent that it doesn’t notice the difference until you decide it’s okay for you to rest now or do something easier. Another reason could be your mind is pacing itself in a way that makes it seem like it’s doing something average so that you don’t feel overwhelmed prematurely and quit the exercise before any real benefit starts to happen.

The point is, don’t judge yourself as having not exercised hard enough during the mental improvement session, only afterwards, when you can have a real grasp on what was really going on in the previous exercise session, and that means you should also not try to stop during the exercise to assess how good you’re doing, because you might not be able to switch back on again as readily, even though you could’ve continued for hours more if you didn’t pause or stop to determine how good you’re really performing.

When you are lifting weights for example you feel like you’re pushing your muscle to the maximum. You are using the muscles to their full capacity. At least this is true for vigorous physical exercise.

This, for reasons I don’t fully understand, does not take place when you’re doing the same with your mind. This is because your mind is not trying to push something external to it. Also, at many occasions, you’re not forcing the same centers to work harder, you’re incorporating new centers in the process to work alongside the business as usual centers or areas. You definitely feel the fatigue and pain when it hits, but you don’t feel like you’re increasing the level at which you’re operating. You feel like you’re the same person doing something heavy, not a better person doing something heavy. Nothing new feels going around in your mind. It doesn’t seem like your performance is peaking in any way. It might even feel like you’re doing less work with your brain, although the exact opposite is what’s happening at the moment. All evidence points out to the fact that your brain activity is significantly higher than normal.

The interesting thing is, you tend to notice how heavy the exercise was, and how intensely your mind was working, after the exercise is over. Never during it, at least to an accurate level of detection of how much effort and focus were being spent earlier on. That should be totally distinct from assessing how much you’ve intensely exercised based upon how fatigued you are because of that exercise. And this is much better because you can always feel tired, even right after waking up from a good night’s sleep, well rested. At best, assessing how much benefit you’ve gained from a mental exercise in terms of fatigue will almost always be misleading. Assessing it according to how difficult the task is should be fair enough. But assessing it according to how much your brain has actually worked is closest to having hard evidence for having exercised in the first place.