I love how marketers twist things so they can get you to buy their products that they're chilling. One of the latest phrases being used by more and more people marketing their wares is "your best life".
If you do this you'll be living your best life. If you take this supplement or if you drive this car or if you wear this style of clothing or this brand of clothing you're going to live your best life.
The implication that fires off in my brain is that if I don't then I'm living less than my best life or more of a mediocre life compared to people who wear those things and do those things and take those things.
I'm sensitive to this because my inner voice beats me up all the time. I've had to work hard to quiet it down to where it is but it's still there and it still chews me out every day. It still tries to convince me that I'm worthless and useless and can't do very much right at all.
So when the marketers come by with their "you can be better with this" and "you can be the best you can ever be with this" it's very compelling.
I've learned to use that phrase "your best life" as a trigger for me to turn whatever it is that I'm listening to or watching off or reorient my attention to something else. I also remind myself that I'm living my life and that's the best thing that I could ever do.
So many people are tied to their screens and they don't really live, they just watch and see what everybody else's best life is and then they hope and go buy lottery tickets in an effort to maybe get a chance to live their best life. It's almost a twist on the Bible. But I buy what Jesus says a lot more than other stuff.
Jesus said that he brings life and more abundantly. I don't recall anywhere in the Bible Jesus saying, "you'll be the best" or "you'll be living your best life". That seems to evoke a comparison to others that Jesus just didn't teach.
He did compare, but it was more of an us versus them thing rather than you being able to brag about how great you are because you take that supplement or because you went to that prayer meeting. you I'm going through something where I'm learning about cognitive biases.
It's very fascinating and I'm familiar with some of it but to go a little bit deeper is interesting to me. "Your best life" seems to evoke a certain bias in the human brain where we automatically doubt and question where we are and ask "do I fit into that picture that they're painting and portraying and if I don't what do I need to do to get there?"
And that's the ultimate trigger that marketers can bring. What do I need to do to get there?
Marketers ruin everything. Just live your life.
