When Is A Guru Not A Guru?

I've met some people to whom I've given my power to more than once in my life.

The friend who “only wants your best”, but then goes on to suffocate you, demanding absolute fealty or else.

The man who is going to love you, protect you, but, well, in the end he doesn't.

The worse ones, in my opinion, are the guru's. They're the one's who tell you how to live your “best life” after squeezing “total value of over $400 but for you it's not $300, not $200 but only $99” out of you for their course in how to lose weight, start a podcast, monetise Pinterest, etc… The thing is, they very seldom practice what they preach. I knew someone in real life who had a modest following and who preached clean living, organic everything, but was a raging alcoholic that gave Haribo to their kids!

The podcast/content creator people say you should give the audience what they want, tap into who is your ideal client/audience/reader etc… then exploit (my word) them for all they're worth. Obviously, it's not marketed like that, that would be far too honest! What is wrong with just being authentic? Why can't we (I) write about things that are true to me, and may resonate with you, without having to do the bullet point bullshit that they say will “change my life” “increase my followers” or “earn me $1k a month”?

On the Myers Briggs scale I'm an INFJ, an advocate, I don't do well with bullshit. But I've fallen for it in the past, and undoubtedly (in my weaker moments) I'll fall for it again. But, that's ok, because I'm human, and we flawed humans make mistakes, sometimes the same ones time and time again! Eventually, I like to think we learn and grow, but I'm a work in progress, as are you. Talking of Myers Briggs, it's an interesting exercise in discovering your qualities, it's not necessarily who YOU are entirely, but, it's a good beginning to understanding yourself...

If you're interested in finding out more, go to

https://www.16personalities.com/

or

https://www.myersbriggs.org/

Above all, I strive for authenticity. I write my ‘warts and all’ articles. I want to write about how I live my imperfect life. I'll express my imperfect opinions, and if you don't agree, guess what? The world won't come to an end. We can't like everyone, or everything they say, 100 percent of the time, it's not possible. But we can still be friends (just not the suffocating kind, please!)

We're in for a rocky future, we need to toughen up, and above all not give our power to “gurus” (or politicians!😉).