Forget money and power, focus on growth, caring, and health

I don't know about you, but I tend to cringe when I hear the term "influencer." It highlights a person's power over others. Pursuing such power seems hollow, to me. And now there's a pre-registered, open science, peer-reviewed meta-analysis to support my cringing. Bradshaw et al. (2023) reviewed 105 studies and found that, aspiring for intrinsic goals (e.g., personal growth, close relationships, giving to your community, physical health) was positively associated with well-being and negative associated with ill-being. On the other hand, striving for extrinsic goals (e.g., wealth, fame, image, or as Tony Camonte might say: money, power, and women) had no relationship with well-being, and a positive association with ill-being. Of course, aspiring for any kind of goal (intrinsic or extrinsic) was better than not aspiring at all, but nonetheless, intrinsic aspiring was better than extrinsic. These findings were consistent across men and women, age groups, socioeconomic statuses, and regions of the world. Digging a bit deeper, the authors found that extrinsic goals promote ill-being when they crowd out intrinsic goals.

The message for me is simple: focus less on being an "influencer" and all the trappings that come with it. Instead, I try to focus on myself and the well-being of the people around me.