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I Don’t Hate Your Cliché Self-Help Articles
“Noooooo! Not another Elon Musk, morning routine, get rich, change your life, click-baity, 5 ways listicle! Come on, man!”
I see tons of writers complaining about other writers and what they write about. Many times it is understandable irritation triggered by repetitive content the same way we get tired of hearing the same talking points from our political rivals. Sometimes it’s familiarity breeding contempt.
Sometimes that morning routine hack makes us roll over and go back to sleep and we roll our eyes at the senseless beating of another dead horse.
I understand this tendency to get irritated. When you see the same stuff over and over it’s natural to feel this way. I’ve found myself feeling the same until I caught myself one day and a thought hit me with the bulky weight of a 25-point listicle:
I thought about why someone wrote the piece and where they are in their journey both in writing and life — then all of it became cool with me and I chilled out about it.
Maybe that dude writing “How I made $17.00 writing last month” is having his first month ever getting paid for writing. His dream is becoming slowly realized. I know from experience that there’s nothing more thrilling…
