News came out this week that Facebook is helping advertisers target teens who feel “worthless”. Leaked documents show Facebook exploiting teen’s words and images so that businesses can advertise their products aimed at the emotional states of the teens. Terms the algorithm uses include “worthless”, “insecure”, “defeated”, “anxious”, “silly”, “useless”, “stupid”, “overwhelmed”, “stressed”, and “a failure”. The interesting thing is, if Facebook was around when I was a teen, I would have shown up in their database as one who felt worthless.
I was a young kid that had a developed a drug problem. I never felt good about using drugs. My problem didn’t start with drugs, it was my inability to deal with the idea that I wasn’t good enough, that I didn’t like myself. Nobody had to tell me I was a loser because I knew I was. The worst part of the drugs was how I felt about myself every time I used them.
Looking back, I believe my depression came from having no purpose.
Here’s the trick to the purpose thing. You don’t need to know it right away, just throw yourself into something that you can measure. You need to be able to score. If you can’t measure your progress, you’ll feel down. People who feel like they are losers are not winning at something—they are losing. The fact is losing makes you feel like a loser, no matter what activity it is.
Failure never makes you feel like a winner.
When I continually lost the battle with using drugs, it made me feel like a loser because I was losing daily battles. If you have trouble showing up on Mondays, if you are up and down, if you just can’t keep things together for any period of time, you are not alone.
Be great,
GC
No matter where you are in life right now, I want to tell you that you aren’t powerless and you are not alone.
When I threw myself completely into sales it gave me something to measure my successes by. The key to winning in life—in anything—is to measure success. You do that by setting goals and chasing after them with everything you have with consistency. All highly successful people, all professionals that operate at the top of their fields—the masters—are all consistent. Great salespeople are consistent, great real-estate people are consistent, great investors are consistent, and great athletes are consistent. Winning 1 Super Bowl will not make you a legend. Consistency builds discipline. Many people who feel “worthless” do so because they lack discipline in some area. Consistency builds discipline, and disciplined actions done consistently create success. Success creates a feeling of winning, and winning builds confidence. If you were flying a plane to a location (goal) you would come up with a navigational plan and stay on track (consistency). You’re not going to visit random places along the way because you would run out of fuel. This is what people do in their life. They get distracted and fly all over the place and run out of fuel to reach the original goal. So come up with consistency in your life. Consistency will guarantee you success. Whether you feel worthless or have solid confidence in yourself, Facebook will sort your data. Let them exploit you for being “significant”, “a blessing”,” sure”, “a success”. One way to start is by consuming the right information. Stop watching the negative news. Stop watching negative TV. Surround yourself with positivity, success, motivation and purpose. Get onto programs that will make you feel better about you and help get you some wins in life.
