Hang In There, Baby And Other Bullshit

Every so often I come across something that just riles me up. Although admittedly I am pretty easy to rile and let’s face it there so much bullshit out there that if I wanted to I could stay completely agitated 24/7.
But what riles me the most in this vast and well charted wilderness of bullshit are all these little pep talk memes posted by life coaches and performance coaches and..come to think of it, you can’t swing a dead cat on the Internet and not come across some sort of coach.
Anyway these people are all doing these Hang In There, Baby posters, as I call them, but I’m not sure what they are trying to prove with them.
Maybe they have this populist view of personal branding that has been drummed into everybody’s heads for years now, and figure, yeah, what the world needs now is another motivational poster. Surely it will go viral. Surely I can save a few lost souls.
My wife and I were waiting to pay for a lamp in HomeSense last week, We were in line behind this young woman who has obviously graduated with full honours from the Lady Gaga School of Fashion and Makeup. Her face, albeit it attractive, looked like this weird mask of mascara, lip gloss, rouge, mile long eyelashes and charcoal eye trim all framed in long straight silvery purple hair. It was really something to see around here, where most of young women are either jocks or debs.

As she turned the corner in the line, I saw she was holding a framed poster that read something like, cause I don’t remember it word for word…”I will always be the brightest star in my galaxy”. And all I could think of was, maybe if you took off the Gaga wannabe mask, and went back to your real hair colour, you might have a shot.
Now people like my darling daughter will chastise me for criticizing someone who is just expressing themselves. But the fact that this girl was willing to pay about 70 bucks for a poster that told her she was worth something really kinda blew me away.
And it said a whole lot about personal insecurity.
But the simple fact is that you can’t buy confidence…you have to learn how to do some stuff, get good at it, then you will be amazed at how your confidence blossoms.
But alas, the massive number of (pick a thing) coaches really speaks volumes to the lack of confidence that many many people possess.
I’ve been very lucky to have spent my adult life around people for whom confidence was never an issue. So much so that I can barely relate to the notion of needing some sort of boost to actually get your ego above water.
Maybe that’s why I find these Hang In There, Baby things just so much bullshit on a stick. Because I may not be wrong in my assumption that emotional crutches such as these tend to be made of the flimsiest of wood, and if you really need support for your ego, maybe you should try getting it the old fashioned way... by working for it.
I know that sounds harsh, but it is a rant, so file it under tough love. Or tell me I’m full of shit. That would be a good thing to do too, eh.

Peace out…jim

Jim Murray is a marketer, communication strategist, writer, art director & blogger. His partner, Charlene Norman is a business systems and operational analyst. Their collaboration is called Bullet Proof Consulting, headquartered in St Catharines, Ontario. Bullet Proof is designed to help companies change their thinking for the better, to become more productive and efficient, better branded and successful in today’s highly competitive business world. You can get a very clear impression of how we think at www.bulletproofconsulting.ca

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