Millennials really went for it in the self-help department. Whether it’s writing in planners or taking ice baths, if someone said it would make life better, they gave it a go. Did some of it help? Sure. But a lot of it didn’t go as expected, and here are twenty-one self-help ideas that many in this generation regret trying. Which of these have you tried before?
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Waking Up at 5 AM
Starting your day at 5 AM sounds ambitious, and many Millennials did so in the belief that it’d help them crush their goals and get ahead in the world. But it turns out, setting your alarm for 4:58 AM makes you more irritable. Most millennials went straight back to sleep or woke up feeling grumpy. They were confused as to why their “productivity” just felt like bigger eye bags.
Buying a Life Coach Off Instagram
Millennials saw people online with pastel Canva quotes and booked a call with these life coaches, hoping for a breakthrough. Instead, they got homework like “visualize success” and a weekly invoice. They soon realized their coach’s only real talent was sounding confident. The life-changing advice was usually just “set boundaries” and “believe in yourself.”
Following 30-Day Challenges For Literally Everything
One day it was “30 days of cold showers,” and the next, it was “30 days of writing gratitudes.” Millennials really thought they could transform themselves through their calendars, although most of them quit halfway through. Then, they tried a new one. It became a revolving door of half-finished habits that never actually went anywhere.
Creating Vision Boards
Millennials put a lot of energy into creating vision boards with magazine clippings and glue sticks. They may even have left a crystal nearby for extra power. But just a year later, that masterpiece was either shoved behind a dresser or covered in dust. Very few of them manifested that beach house or soulmate in a leather jacket.
Reading One Self-Help Book a Week
Rather than reading self-help books to, y’know, help themselves, Millennials made it into a competition. They’d have bookshelves full of mindset hacks and productivity tricks, which they aimed to read in a week. But cramming in seven chapters between commuting and cooking doesn’t leave much room to process any of it. Many admitted they were just collecting titles.
Replacing Therapy With Journaling Prompts
Lots of people claim online that “journaling is free therapy.” Sure, prompts like “What does my inner child need today?” are helpful until you’re left crying into your Moleskines at 11 PM with no tools to deal with the emotional fallout. You need to have someone to talk things through with, or else you’ll end up spiraling.
Buying Crystals to “Raise Their Vibration”
Every Millennial has had that moment where they fill a shelf in their homes with crystals, which will apparently help them with “energy work.” Amethyst for calm, selenite for cleansing, and citrine for abundance. Some even had a little pouch to carry around. But after a while, the only thing they raised was their Visa bill, with no vibrational changes to speak of.
Using Productivity Apps For Every Tiny Task
At some point, checking off “drink water” on five different apps is more exhausting than simply drinking the water. Having a tracker for your mood, habits, screen time, and sleep makes life feel like one big dashboard rather than something to enjoy. It’s no surprise that so many Millennials ended up deleting everything. They’d rather use a notebook from Target instead.
Paying For Personality Tests to Find Purpose
Finding out more about yourself starts with a free quiz. Then, it becomes a paid personality assessment, with messages like “Discover your true path using Enneagram Type 4w3 with Mars in Leo.” For a while, it seems enlightening. However, Millennials soon realized they were still confused, but now they had a $99 PDF telling them they were a visionary dreamer.
Turning Morning Routines into Hour-Long Productions
Social media taught Millennials that their mornings needed to involve lemon water and journaling, followed by yoga and breathwork. They’d even do a sun salutation if time allowed. By the time it was over, they felt more exhausted than they had at the start, and such a routine seems to only work for influencers. For everyone else, it’s a complete overload.
Changing Their Diet For Mental Clarity
Cutting out gluten, sugar, dairy, caffeine, and joy in the name of “clarity” is pretty common for Millennials. Many of them jumped on the wellness bandwagon in the hopes that clean eating would clean up their brain fog. But what did they get? Cravings and an unfortunate obsession with almond flour that didn’t solve anything.
Paying For Subscription Meditation Apps
Those soothing voices and pretty designs of certain meditation apps feel promising, especially with the claims that you need to devote “just five minutes a day.” However, the truth is that most people opened the app twice and then ignored the push notifications for the rest of the year. They were lucky if they remembered to turn off the $79 auto-renewal.
Following Hustle Culture Advice From Influencers
Ask any LinkedIn influencer, and they’ll tell you about how “crushing it” involves posting about your 4 AM cold plunge and seven revenue streams. It’s no wonder a lot of Millennials do the same, hoping it’ll lead to success. But after the 40th “grindset” post, they soon realized they were just tired and broke. Reposting Gary Vee only gets you so far.
Trying to Manifest Love Using Scripting
Writing “I’m so grateful for my perfect relationship” 33 times every morning sounds sweet until you do it for months on end, and nobody new has entered your life. Millennials learned this the hard way. They started wondering if they spelled “soulmate” wrong, and most of them eventually gave up.
Using “Brainwave” YouTube Videos to Fix Their Lives
The idea of playing “brainwave” YouTube videos while you sleep is that they contain special frequencies that’ll help you wake up feeling more confident or with more cash. For a while, Millennials swore by it. But after waking up groggy after eight hours of 528Hz abundance tones, they realized these videos didn’t do much.
Believing They’d “Hack” Their Brain With Nootropics
Smart pills promise they’ll give you sharper focus and better memory, perhaps even a limitless mind, too. The reality is far different. You’ll probably just have an uneasy stomach and tons of weird dreams. A few experiments were all it took for most Millennials to throw out the capsules. Caffeine and regular sleep beat pills any day of the week.
Watching 3-Hour Productivity Vlogs Instead of Doing Stuff
Something about those lo-fi study sessions with candles and ambient jazz makes Millennials feel productive. However, the problem was that they were still on the couch watching someone else color-code their notes while they ignored their own laundry and inbox. But hey, at least it was relaxing.
Trying to Hack Sleep
Orange glasses and magnesium sprays, as well as sleep teas and blackout curtains, became a routine for many Millennials. Unfortunately, despite all the prep, many people in this generation still found themselves scrolling TikTok at midnight. They wore blue blockers and were left wondering why they were wide awake with lavender mist in their hair.
Signing Up for Expensive Breathwork Memberships
Some Millennials fell for the breathwork trend hook, line, and sinker. The monthly memberships for the workshops weren’t cheap, but they promised breakthroughs. Fast forward a few weeks, and the sessions seemed more dramatic than helpful, especially since being taught how to breathe is rather pointless. Really, you’re just paying to hyperventilate on a yoga mat.
Buying Affirmation Decks and Pulling One Every Morning
Affirmation decks are in practically every self-help aisle, with their beautiful designs and calming fonts. They promise to “set your intention,” and using them started as a fun little morning thing for most Millennials. But eventually, the cards all started sounding the same, and the messages got kind of vague. Reading “You are enough” only works so many times.
Trying to Rewire Their Brain with Gratitude Alarms
The idea of setting daily alarms on your phone labeled “Be grateful now” or “Smile and think of 3 things” sounds nice. It’s meant to reprogram your brain with regular gratitude breaks. But in reality, the timing’s always off because you get them in the middle of a meeting or when you’re stuck in traffic. Really, these alarms just train you to hit the “dismiss” button.
Disclaimer: This list is solely the author’s opinion based on research and publicly available information.
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