James Laughlin on why goal-setting obsession backfired for him. He nearly died from bulimia, recovered, and now questions the self-help myths he once believed in, from the law of attraction to grit culture.
So you're nine books in. This is incredible. Best selling books hitting the lists. I am obsessed with goal setting and I've been obsessed since I was a child. I fell headlong into this behavior at the age of 14 and it nearly killed me. And in my recovery from bulimia I did something really hard. I never thought of myself as courageous or brave. Female CEOs are not judged the same as male CEOs. There's a way to pay back and to open doors for people who have less power. Money, power, domination, winning. You will give up, you will get overwhelmed and you will blame other people. And let's get rid of the law of attraction. All this crap, real crap. The secret, the this, the that. You can't magically chant your way to success. Why rob yourself of the opportunity to find out what you're made of? Do you have enough grit? Do you even know what grit is composed of?
