Next TpT or Instagram Star?
I like the way education and educational resources have become commercialized, wrapped in the box with the possibility to be delivered into your mailbox or to your door.
The idea of knowledge, skills, and opportunities to be fostered only in the classroom is long gone. Now everyone, from toddlers to beginner teachers, moms, education enthusiasts, and 70-year-old want-to-be entrepreneurs have access to personalized, carefully preplanned, quality courses, webinars, Ebooks to suit anyone’s needs.
The modern trend for sharing knowledge no matter your status and educational experience is allowing new opportunities for those who want to receive education in a general sense and, most importantly, for those on the other side of the continuum – people who refuse to be stuck in conventional boundaries of one-job-forever and decide to venture into the enticing world of blogging, Instagramming and course-making.
Despite the spam-like nature of Instagram sponsored promotions and “download-for-email exchange” offers, I’m quite fascinated to read the ads and sign-up for free webinars that promise a full insight into any topic imaginable: mastering math centers, selling educational resources, kids anxiety, in-house gardening, sticker making, copywriting, fighting fear and what’s not. It’s like shopping for emotions and promises that potentially could change your life. It sounds too cheesy. Yet, I love it even more.
With a few clicks and a charge on a credit card, you always receive a package of hope or promise. A course, a webinar, or a free 10-page download boldly invite you to manifest dreams and fix worries right now through the computer screen. As a believer in massive action, visualization, and manifestation, I gobble such promises and shop for the opportunities of change online. What can I have today, or what can I be? Which path can I purchase, and what transformation can I choose to experience for the charge of $550?
My eyes light up. A smile brightens my face. I binge-watch free course videos with a cup of tea in my hands, almost sure that tomorrow my reality will change as it was described. I will start making my first side-hustle money, gain my first followers, start fulfilling my dreams of doing what seems to bring happiness and wealth to many others like me, moms, educators, dreamers.
I’ve begun the self-transformational journey long ago. Since 2016 when I picked up my first self-help book, I have gobbled hundreds of pages about happiness, business, money mindset, massive action, life transformation. I listened to hundreds of podcast episodes, took some cheap and expensive courses to be where I am now, not yet having my own business or a million-dollar house, but in the space of self-confidence and having a solid determination that massive action does change reality.
I have received a fresh perspective that keeps my head in the lop of thinking, “Everything is possible, and it’s already happening.” Yes, that’s right, things have been happening to me in my life that I now decode as those manifested by me, those brought about by massive action. And this is thanks to a few Instagram advertised promises from people like you and me who packaged their skills and knowledge and shared it with others. That’s the power of education and sharing personal experiences.
Many times I would wake up and think today is my day. Tomorrow I can be the next success story, the one who cracked the code of wealth and happiness and who is no longer just the follower of the circumstances. And now that I think of it, it looks already just like me and my life.
It’s hard to measure how much you already grew if you don’t measure by where you started. Looking back now, I see a dramatic difference, and now I can say, “My life has changed the ways I dreamed about, and it is getting even better.” I can be a course creator starting tomorrow, my modest TpT store will be hit with orders, and I will quit my job to be an educational entrepreneur.
I can be anything of what the free webinars promise. I just need a bit more time to be ready. Wait, stop! To be ready? What did I just blurt out? What nonsense! One can never be prepared to start something new and scary. AS for me, I’ll begin today when I finish burping my month-year-old and cook lunch for my family, and then, the time is mine!…
While I hustle in the kitchen and feed my child, someone is probably waking up to a big success or a shift in life. Someone is already there to chase the dreams, someone is already living the dream.
They say we are addicted to screens because experiencing someone’s emotions makes us feel as if these emotions are ours. Thus, experiencing someone’s success makes us feel as if it is our success. Looking at a photo of a picture-perfect teacher posing in her pretty classroom makes us think we are quite close to this image, too. Just a few fixes and the ideal me is right there.
And then when the screen turns off, we suddenly realize the heaviness of being us and having to do it on our won.
Some get scared, some retreat, some do take a leap and start something new and fresh and promising. I’m quite happy to think about my future. I’ m quite happy to realize that my new life and opportunities are a click away. I admire those who did it, who changed the status quo and became something even if the change is small, even if the new venture allows you to pay your bills and buy a new car.
The question that always stops me and many others is, “What can I do to offer to others?” and the answer is, “Anything!”
Just start now.
Start from something small.
It will grow. There is no doubt about it.
So is today a good day? You decide.
Don’t forget to take care of yourself!
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