"Invest in yourself!"? Be Careful!
How gurus manipulate language to make spending money feel productive.
The phrase “Invest in yourself” is almost reaching meme status. You have probably heard or read it before. Maybe it came from a loving family member. Or a good friend.
But more likely, it came from some self help guru.
And depending on who it came from, the phrase serves a massively different purpose. That’s because the same information can be communicated with different intentions.
Let’s take a look at two extremes.
Helpful Intent
“Invest in yourself” from a helpful person would mean something like “work hard, be patient, learn a new skill.” It’s basically an appeal to do something difficult now, so you can reap the rewards later.
It emphasizes effort, self overcoming and a productive engagement with life.
It’s an attempt at inspiring our Will.
Commercial Intent
When a guru utters the phrase, they are simply priming us for a purchase.
“Invest in yourself” they say.
“Of course! But how?” We ask.
“With a simple purchase of my course. And luckily have a special discount today and ONLY TODAY!” the guru will answer.
It's an attempt at hacking our Auto-Pilot
How does this work?
Most of us know that the only path to real freedom (from ourselves!) is through inspired effort. The word “invest” in the phrase “invest in yourself” is usually interpreted this way. As an act of production where we overcome our fears, cravings and inertia. That’s why the phrase holds any value at all!
But the guru plays a smart linguistic sleight of hand.
In the language game of the guru, “invest” means just one thing: a monetary purchase.
When the guru says “Invest in yourself”, all they are saying is “buy my overpriced course”. The “investment” becomes an act of easy consumption.
For a brief moment they make us feel like we are actually engaging in productive effort – like we are engaging our Will. Naturally this feeling doesn’t last, the lack of real effort will inevitably make itself clear. Unfortunately though, a swipe of the credit card takes just a few seconds. So, we don’t get the fulfillment, but the guru does get our money.
Take-away
Next time you hear the phrase “invest in yourself!”, it may be worth it to consider what this “investment” exactly entails. Is it a prompt for easy consumption? Or a call to inspire intentional effort?