Borrowed Dreams: Escaping the Invisible Puppet Strings !
- The Three-Question Drill That Could Save You Ten Years
- 📱 Influencers Aren’t Selling Products.
- 🤖 AI Knows What You Want…
- 🏡 The Great Indian Comparison Championship
- The Borrowed Dream Economy
- 📊 Borrowed Desire vs Genuine Calling
- The Origin Trace Exercise
- So… Should We Stop Copying People?
- 🎬 The Plot Twist Nobody Expects
- The Freedom Test
- Final Thought: Stop Renting Your Ambitions
- 💬 Join the Conversation
The Three-Question Drill That Could Save You Ten Years
René Girard didn’t suggest becoming a monk.
He suggested becoming aware.
Because imitation itself isn’t the enemy.
Unconscious imitation is.
Whenever you feel a burning desire for a promotion, luxury car, startup, expensive wedding, viral Reel, AI course, or dream lifestyle, pause and ask yourself three brutally honest questions.
“Freedom begins when you recognize which dreams belong to you.”
Question 1
👀 Who else around me wants this?
If the answer is:
- My colleagues
- My college friends
- Every influencer
- Everyone on LinkedIn
- Every entrepreneur on YouTube
…there’s a reasonable chance your desire has been socially amplified.
Nothing wrong with that.
Just know whose voice you’re hearing.
Question 2
🤔 Did I want this before I saw everyone else wanting it?
This is where things get interesting.
Remember NFTs?
Clubhouse?
Crypto Lamborghinis?
Blue tick obsession?
Every year the internet invents a new “must-have.”
Very few survive.
If your desire appeared immediately after exposure…
Congratulations.
You may have downloaded someone else’s ambition.
Question 3
🎭 Would I still want this if nobody ever knew I had it?
This is Girard’s nuclear question.
Would you buy that luxury watch…
…if it remained permanently hidden under your sleeve?
Would you drive the expensive SUV…
…if nobody could recognize the logo?
Would you still chase that promotion…
…if titles disappeared tomorrow?
If the answer becomes shaky…
The desire may not be yours.
📱 Influencers Aren’t Selling Products.
They’re Selling Desires.
Think carefully.
Influencers rarely say:
“Buy this phone.”
Instead they show:
The vacation.
The confidence.
The aesthetic.
The lifestyle.
The coffee.
The apartment.
The freedom.
You don’t buy the phone.
You buy the imagined version of yourself holding it.
Marketing has always sold identity.
AI has simply become incredibly good at personalizing the dream.
🤖 AI Knows What You Want…
Sometimes Before You Do
Modern recommendation engines don’t merely predict preferences.
They shape them.
The more time you spend watching entrepreneurship videos…
The more entrepreneurial you begin to feel.
Watch enough luxury travel content…
Suddenly your perfectly enjoyable Goa vacation starts feeling “ordinary.”
Watch enough fitness influencers…
Your healthy body starts negotiating with impossible standards.
AI doesn’t create desire from nothing.
It accelerates Mimetic Desire.
Like adding rocket fuel to comparison.
The algorithm isn’t evil.
It’s optimized.
And optimization without awareness can quietly become manipulation.
🏡 The Great Indian Comparison Championship
Let’s conduct a national audit.
Phase One
You buy a perfectly good car.
You’re delighted.
Phase Two
Your cousin arrives at Diwali with a bigger SUV.
Suddenly your own car looks like it came free with detergent.
Phase Three
Neighbour renovates his kitchen.
Now yours feels prehistoric.
Phase Four
School WhatsApp group explodes.
Someone posts:
“Happy to announce my daughter got admission into…”
Congratulations.
Your peaceful Sunday just resigned.
India doesn’t merely have cricket leagues.
We have comparison leagues.
Every festival becomes a scoreboard.
Every wedding becomes an exhibition.
Every LinkedIn announcement becomes psychological cardio.
The Borrowed Dream Economy
Let’s call modern capitalism what it often is:
A marketplace for borrowed desires.
Luxury brands don’t merely manufacture handbags.
They manufacture aspiration.
Universities don’t merely sell degrees.
They sell identity.
Social media doesn’t merely distribute content.
It distributes envy.
The economy runs on attention.
Attention creates comparison.
Comparison creates desire.
Desire creates consumption.
Consumption creates another Instagram post.
And the cycle quietly restarts.
📊 Borrowed Desire vs Genuine Calling
| Borrowed Desire | Genuine Calling |
|---|---|
| Triggered by comparison | Triggered by curiosity |
| Needs validation | Needs practice |
| Impresses others | Energizes you |
| Constantly changes | Deepens over time |
| Creates anxiety | Creates meaning |
| Ends with “What’s next?” | Ends with “That felt worthwhile.” |
Notice something?
Authentic desires don’t usually shout.
They whisper.
Borrowed desires arrive wearing fireworks.
The Origin Trace Exercise
This may become the most valuable five minutes of your week.
Choose one major goal.
Maybe:
- Becoming a CEO.
- Buying a luxury home.
- Launching a startup.
- Becoming an influencer.
- Pursuing an MBA.
- Growing your Instagram following.
Now trace it backwards.
When did it first become important?
Who introduced it?
Which conversation?
Which video?
Which person?
Which LinkedIn post?
Which family gathering?
Which YouTube recommendation?
Don’t judge yourself.
Just investigate.
Sometimes you’ll discover:
“I genuinely wanted this long before anyone else.”
Excellent.
Keep going.
Other times you’ll realize:
“I’ve spent eight years climbing someone else’s mountain.”
That realization hurts.
It also sets you free.
So… Should We Stop Copying People?
Absolutely not.
Children learn by imitation.
Artists study masters.
Entrepreneurs learn from mentors.
Athletes imitate champions.
Without imitation…
Civilization would restart every Monday morning.
The goal isn’t to eliminate Mimetic Desire.
The goal is to make it conscious.
Borrow deliberately.
Not accidentally.
Choose your role models as carefully as you choose your investments.
Because you’ll eventually resemble both.
🎬 The Plot Twist Nobody Expects
The happiest people aren’t necessarily the richest.
Or the most famous.
Or the most followed.
They’re often the ones who finally stopped asking:
“What does everyone else want?”
And started asking:
“What kind of Tuesday would genuinely make me happy?”
Strangely…
The answer is usually much simpler.
A meaningful project.
Good health.
People who care.
Interesting work.
Peaceful sleep.
A cup of chai.
Not very Instagrammable.
Extremely life-changing.
The Freedom Test
Tonight, before sleeping…
Write down three goals you’re chasing.
Now imagine something impossible.
Nobody will ever know whether you achieved them.
No applause.
No LinkedIn announcement.
No family praise.
No social media.
No trophies.
Would you still chase them?
Whatever survives that test…
Protect it.
That’s probably your life speaking.
Not the crowd.
Final Thought: Stop Renting Your Ambitions
Imagine spending thirty years climbing a ladder…
Only to discover it was leaning against someone else’s wall.
That’s Mimetic Desire.
It doesn’t steal your effort.
It steals your direction.
The most successful people aren’t necessarily those who want more.
They’re the ones who know which desires are genuinely theirs.
The freest person in the room isn’t the wealthiest.
It’s the one who no longer needs the room’s approval.
Because when your ambitions become truly yours…
Comparison loses its job.
Algorithms lose their grip.
Status becomes optional.
And success finally feels like home.
📌 Your 60-Second Challenge
Take out your phone.
Open your wishlist.
Pick one item you’ve wanted for months.
Now ask:
If nobody on Earth ever knew I owned this… would I still buy it?
Your first honest answer is worth more than a thousand motivational videos.
Because clarity is the rarest luxury in the age of infinite comparison.
💬 Join the Conversation
What’s one dream you’ve realized wasn’t actually yours?
Or…
What’s one passion that stayed with you even when nobody was watching?
Share your answer in the comments.
Someone reading it might finally stop chasing a borrowed dream.
🚀 Read. Think. Grow.
If this article challenged the way you think, explore more powerful mental models like Goodhart’s Law, The Lindy Effect, Second-Order Thinking, Inversion, Circle of Competence, Hanlon’s Razor, and more at VoittoInsights.in.
🧠 Better Thinking.
🎯 Better Decisions.
🚀 Better Life.
Because the most dangerous prison isn’t made of walls.
It’s made of desires you never realized weren’t yours.
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Voitto Insights
I am passionate about helping others have the right mindset to overcome challenges. Financial independence plays an important role in having that right mindset. I will also post regarding trading and investment ideas. Earlier had successfully completed two masters in management degrees. I am a working professional with more than a decade experience in multiple industries. Disclaimer: Kindly note that, I am not a Sebi registered investment advisor. Please do your own due diligence before taking any action on the posts here. All posts are for educational purposes only.
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