News of an allegedly lavish wedding between controversial life coach GehGeh and his wife recently set social media abuzz. Although images of the couple in traditional attire sparked intense online conversation, GehGeh later claimed on Instagram that the ceremony was actually for a film.
This clarification, however, only came after he faced significant backlash from his predominantly male audience, who criticised him for hypocrisy given his previous advice against marriage.
Many believe the self-acclaimed life coach got married and is backtracking to save himself after seeing the pushback from his fans, while others believe it was a ploy to get at naysayers. For us, we say this is why we should take little advice from self-proclaimed life coaches.
What are the dangers of taking advice from social media life coaches and influencers?
There are many reasons why people should be wary of taking advice from social media life coaches or influencers. While there are authentic life coaches, influencers or celebrities who have the necessary certification for the work they do, not all of them are worth building your belief system around, and here’s why:
- Lack of Training On Their Social Coaching Topics
For a lot of life coaches, influencers or celebrities, their wealth is built around selling an image to their fans, and often, these individuals lack formal training or balanced perspectives and knowledge necessary for being life coaches. Instead, they substitute practical and healthy principles, either around money or romantic relationships, with loud confidence and berating of their audience.
- Contentifying of Morals
Popular life coaches and influencers on social media like GehGeh build their morals off of what they can amass social traction from. Their beliefs are often designed around the most provocative statements put out for views and engagement and are often not a reflection of the true values and belief system they operate with.
- The Negatives Of Blind Followership
As with the case of the alleged marriage of GehGeh, following the footprint of a social media life coach blindly could ruin your interpersonal relationship, pushing you to lead your life according to the rules they set while they go against their own rules offline. These individuals are not expected to share accountability for the consequences faced by their followers when the advice has them going south.
What are the risks of building around the belief system of a life coach or influencer?
There are many risks associated with building your belief system around people you only know online; some of these risks you should be aware of are the following:
- The Stripping of Autonomy
One of the greatest risks of building your life and belief system around a life coach is that it strips you of autonomy. In cases where you have a different perspective from your favourite life coach, you are forced to reshape your beliefs to go along with their belief system because you accept that they know better.
- Cult-like Control
Extreme coaching environments use peer pressure and toxic positivity to make you feel small, broken, and completely reliant on the group leader. They also build a fear of stepping out of line, forcing you to hand over control of your actions to their words.
- Loss of Identity
Following the words and actions of a life coach often strips you of your identity. You stop trusting your own gut feelings and wait for the coach to validate your choices, and often, you begin to accept the coach’s personal biases as universal facts.
What do we think?
Building your life and goals around a life coach or influencer’s personal belief system creates severe risks: loss of personal autonomy, adoption of unproven dogmas, and deep financial or emotional dependency. Instead of finding your own answers, you risk living out someone else’s blueprint. It is important that even while trusting the words of a life coach, you still maintain the confidence and ability to make your own decisions outside of the belief system of the life coach or social media influencer.
