A friend of mine who is a YouTube star in the Somatics and Yoga space, sent me a few messages via WhatsApp this morning to tell me how annoyed she is with a person on YouTube. The person in question is in her niche and has very quickly amassed a huge follower count and several videos with over a million views.
That is to say, this other YouTuber has - in her mind - eclipsed the level of fame that she has.
And she is annoyed by that.
And she does not like his videos.
Even so, she keeps comparing herself to him and how he creates his videos and his topics and titles and such.
She asked me what I thought and I had some very simple advice for her:
Stop following that person.
There is nothing to be gained by following people that annoy you.
And even less to be gained by imitating people in your field.
My friend has a great niche. She makes a good living. And whatever else she decides to do to grow her following and business will be much better served if it comes from her internal desires and goals, independent of anyone else in her community.
In fact, I personally go out of my way to learn from people who are not related to anything that I do.
And I follow just about no one in the Feldenkrais community.
I have no wish to "keep up with Joneses" (as we say in the United States).
And on those times when do...I end up regretting it!
Anyway, I do not know who needs to hear that, if anyone.
But there it is.
When we stay focused on our own goals and desires we end up feeling more satisfied and authentic.
Ryan
*I wish I could tell you my friend's name, but she specifically asked me not to (several times!). Though she is not a Feldenkrais practitioner, she occasionally gets invited to Feldenkrais conferences and trainings and doesn't want to be publicly associated with me. Why? Because there is a small but vocal contingent of Feldenkrais Trainers and others who do not like my writings nor ideas. And that is fine. Perhaps they would feel better if they stopped following me online?
