Personal trainer Emmet Rushe looks at the profiles you need to unfollow to banish negativity this New Year.

Social media is a both a blessing and a curse.

It allows us to keep in touch with friends and family around the world and also to ‘see inside’ their daily lives and the lives of others.

Celebrities have millions of followers who watch what they are doing, what they are wearing, what products they use and the trends of what we buy are now based on these.

The problem with social media, is that the ‘perfect lives’ that these celebrities show on their feeds are being emulated by their followers.

It seems to be that if you can’t have a bad day,

  • you must always be smiling and happy,
  • your relationship must be perfect
  • you have to have the latest product
  • you can’t post a ‘bad’ picture of yourself
  • you are on top of everything and your life is perfect.

But the truth is very different from what is portrayed. It’s just that no one wants to put up anything that may show themselves in a ‘bad light’.

When the reality is, you aren’t showing anything in a bad light, you are just normal, and life inevitably happens.

Why is this important to know?

As we progress into January, things might get more difficult with our training or maybe our nutrition isn’t quite on track as we would like it to be.

Then you turn on Instagram, or Snapchat or Facebook and you see a celebrity or a friend who has one of these ‘perfect’ lives.

You start to compare yourself to them and wonder why you don’t have it together like they do.

  • Why can’t you stick to the gym?
  • Why can’t you stick to your diet?
  • How have they lost so much weight so quick?
  • How have they gotten so slim so quick?

These thoughts can run through your head and it can put you off as you feel like you are failing.

But you are not.

These perfect lives are nothing but a facade.

  • They aren’t in the gym every day.
  • They aren’t sticking to their diets
  • They haven’t lost weight quicker than you
  • They haven’t gotten slim.
  • They are using angles, lighting, sucking it in, filters, Photoshop, and other tricks that show them in a very different way to what you see in person.

Why do they do this?

They do it because they have all the insecurities and failings that the rest of us have. They just don’t like showing it on social media.

So, the next time you find yourself feeling bad because of something you see on of these sites, stop and think, is this real?

I can guarantee you that it isn’t and you shouldn’t base your success on what others portray as theirs.

How do you view others’ lives from a snapshot online?

In closing, my rule for social media is this;

If you are following someone on social media, even if it is a close friend, and following them makes you feel bad about yourself, you need to delete them.

No good comes from negativity and if what you see on a daily basis is having a negative effect on your life, you need to remove it.

You will feel so much better after you do this and you will soon find that your own life and successes improve.

So, if you are wavering on your resolutions and feeling like giving up, ask yourself if what you are looking at on social media could be the reason for this.

If it is, you know what to do.
#trainsmart