Selling False Hopes

I subscribe to something called Insight of the Day. I usually love the positive message I get first thing in the morning. An inspiring message starts the day off right. Today was an exception.

It starts with "Mick Jagger sang, ‘You CAN'T always get what you want!’ He was wrong!" Clicking on a hyperlink takes you to the comments written by the author, someone who has written a “best-selling” book.

The article encourages you to invest in spending some time and money at a “week-long mastermind and brainstorming session with a small group of people” led by another guru.

In the end, you are told to forget what the Rolling Stones sing and that you CAN always get what you want.

What a crock! Life isn’t like that at all. What upsets me is that this guy is selling a lot of false hope to people.

I know lots of kids who want to be NHL hockey players. Many men would want a date with Pamela Anderson or Jennifer Anniston. How about Brad Pitt or Johnny Depp for the women? What I want is to play professional baseball and win the World Series.

Guess what? A lot of us are not going to get what we want. Just visioning something doesn’t mean that you will get it. Sometimes the decision doesn’t totally depend on us.

Life is full of people who are promising you the world in order to line their pockets with money. Do you think if they told you the truth – that if you keep trying eventually some dreams will come true – many people would attend their seminars?

It’s like the evangelist who preaches that God wants to make you wealthy. People often flock to these churches with the promise of prosperity. If God wants to make all believers wealthy, why are there so many poor Christians in Third World Countries? The only ones I see getting really wealthy are the evangelists. Often they prey upon the gullible so they can get rich.

I’m not suggesting that you give up on your dreams. You should never do that. What I am saying is that you shouldn’t be fooled by people giving you false hope that you can do anything, and when I say anything, I mean anything. An egg can’t fly until it grows into a bird.

While you are at it, listen to what the Rolling Stones say in their song. While a lot of the lyrics are a bit of a mystery to me, read these lines.
You can't always get what you want
And if you try sometime you find
You get what you need

And if you try, sometime you find you get what you need. Now that makes a lot of sense. Maybe that’s why Mick is now Sir Mick.