| Summary: | Personal development is a rapidly growing industry. Nearly half of the world’s population has met with a psychiatrist, psychologist or psychotherapist, which indicates that what these people say has an enormous impact on our society. In my study I will scrutinize the view of the world which is presented by four of the world’s most successful gurus in the industry of personal development: Steve Jobs, David Goggins, Denzel Washington and Tony Robbins. This will be done by analyzing their use of metaphors as well as the potential consequences these might have for the listeners. I have analyzed the metaphors in accordance with Lakoff and Johnson’s conceptual metaphor theory (CMT) and compared the results with each other. My results show that all of these gurus use the metaphor LIFE IS A JOURNEY, which can generate motivation. They also see motivation as fluent, that is, as something which comes and goes. This can also be considered to have motivating effects. Another interesting finding is that our results are described as consequences of our decisions, which the psychologist Julian Rotter calls internal locus of control. This has been shown to increase performance and responsibility.
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