I mentioned these two videos:
🔗 If you don’t know what you want in 2026, start here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYLk8u8e_UA
🔗 Video on “the self-criticism cycle”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCxuFdIPqJk
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⛳️ Red Flags of Self-Improvement
→ Encourages isolating yourself (e.g. go ghost for 6 months, cut off everyone, etc.)
→ Over-focuses on “having discipline” and “taking action”, while ignoring emotional regulation, difficult days, different brains, flexibility, and letting go of self-criticism
→ Creates an “us vs them” dynamic that breeds division or superiority (e.g. “people like us vs people like them”)
→ Pushes rigid formulas, steps, or “right ways” of doing things without encouraging self-reflection or a personalised approach
→ Turns relationships into hierarchies (e.g. “high-value vs low-value people”)
→ Encourages self-rejection instead of self-acceptance
→ Feeds your ego or makes you feel “better than” others (e.g. “when you start healing, you won’t relate to people anymore”)
→ Encourages shame-based growth rather than curiosity-led growth
→ Promotes constant optimisation without emphasising space for fun, rest, and relationships
→ Pushes “more, more, more” instead of focusing on what’s actually effective (which is often less)
→ Over-identifies you with your problems in an unhelpful way (leans heavily on labels instead of helping you understand and change what’s actually going on)
☁️ *Join the Intention Community (it's replaced the Intention app)! ⇢*
→ _Every month, two brand-new tools (meditations, worksheets, videos, etc) drop, usually built around a recent video - so that you can take what you’ve learned and do something with it._
→ Join: https://intentioncommunity.circle.so/
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💛 *If you liked this video, you'll probably like... ⇢*
→ The Behaviour Change Playlist _(when you want to start a new habit or change)_ : https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLW3yd6NHmEVqXsWO6qv2AytfUtVeVf6f7
🍧 *I post more of this kind of thing on Instagram ⇢*
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🎧 *Prefer chattier deep-dives on productivity and behaviour change? ⇢*
→ I drop weekly chatty episodes on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2HqznNA2v9McYirvqmUVvO?si=024ac78820b24443
💭 *Video timeline ⇢*
00:00 Everyone is quitting self-improvement
00:33 The first self-improvement trap
02:08 The next trap
03:40 Trap #3
04:56 Self-improvement trap #4
06:50 SOooo... What then?!
07:20 Firstly, definitely stop doing this
08:22 And start doing this
08:54 Please! do this
09:19 How I can be a better creator
10:23 Creating responsibly
12:40 How I want to create going forward
🔗 Anything I mentioned ⇢
🔗 If you don’t know what you want in 2026, start here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYLk8u8e_UA
🔗 Video on “the self-criticism cycle”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCxuFdIPqJk
🔗 Tim Ferris Blog Post on The Self Help Trap: https://tim.blog/2026/03/04/the-self-help-trap/
New Zealand