Disappointed with online courses? Let's get to the bottom of this.

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I came across a piece of research by Dr Katy Jordan recently that caught my attention.

87.4% of people do not finish the courses they buy.

The research looks at course length, course design and assessment types as the reasons behind that number, and yes all of those things matter, but this is my take on it, and I say this as someone who has lived this experience herself very recently, I wonder if there is something else going on underneath that number that nobody is really measuring or talking about.

I waited for the tax year to end to buy it

I had been sitting on the sidelines for months telling myself that next tax year, when the budget allowed, I would finally buy that course. I had been seeing it promoted everywhere and it seemed to fit exactly what I needed, it felt like the missing piece, the thing that would finally mean my business felt like it was properly on the right path, and I had convinced myself that this was the one that would make all the difference.

So I bought the online course. And I was so disappointed.

I signed in straight away all excited to dive in, but as I noticed the finer details I felt my heart sinking. The zoom call times didn't work well for me and were infrequent, and when I posted in the Facebook group to ask a question it was other students who replied, not the expert I had actually paid for, and whilst their input was appreciated and they were genuinely kind and well meaning, it just wasn't what I was hoping it would be. So yes I was very disappointed with the online course.

So I started asking myself whether I had placed too much expectation on this course, whether I had pinned so much hope on it. I knew I had to do the work and I was fully prepared to do that, but maybe in all the excitement I had inflated the possible outcomes in my head beyond what it could ever realistically deliver.

And honestly, probably yes, but then again doesn't marketing do exactly that these days? We are sold the dream so convincingly that of course we inflate it, and I don't think that's just me, it's like Willy Wonka and the golden ticket, we are told exactly what we want so badly to hear and of course we believe it because we want it to be true.

The part that I think has been missed

The disappointment almost sabotaged me completely.

It was so intense that I noticed I was pushing the course away, telling myself I wouldn't bother with it, what a waste, and I felt like a complete fool for having been hooked in by the marketing and wasted my money, and so on top of the disappointment in the course I then felt deeply disappointed in myself too, which if I am being really honest was probably the heavier of the two feelings.

And what I noticed was that all of that, the disappointment, the shame, the self judgment, had created a wall between me and anything valuable the course actually contained, because the course wasn't bad, it just wasn't what I had been hoping it would be, and yet I was so busy feeling let down and embarrassed that I couldn't see past any of it to the gems that were genuinely sitting there waiting for me.

So I wonder if you have bought a course or signed up for therapy or coaching, and really pinned your hopes on this changing everything, and then you come crashing down to ground to the reality of it all. Because lets be honest we get wrapped up in the hope and don't read all the details, we almost skim the words and see what we want to see because it means so much to us, and please know this is a human response, our hopes have taken over our logical thinking.

And lets be honest as well, one person's description can mean something else entirely to another, because we interpret everything through our own lens, our own experiences, our own set of expectations, and details can so easily be read in the way we most want them to be read rather than the way they were actually intended.

What happened when I tapped on it

I tapped on the disappointment and the loss of hope, and the intensity calmed.

And when I went back and looked at the course again I could see some valuable nuggets that I had completely missed whilst I was in the thick of that heavy feeling, and I thought to myself, ok so it wasn't completely in the learning style I enjoy the most, but I am not going to shoot myself in the foot and throw all my toys out of the cot, I am going to give it a go and see where it leads me.

That shift, from pushing something away in shame and disappointment to being able to look at it with fresh and open eyes, that is what EFT tapping does that so many other approaches struggle to reach, it works with the nervous system to process the emotional weight of an experience so that you can actually see clearly again, and for women in business who are feeling stuck despite trying everything, that moment of being able to see clearly again can make all the difference.

If this resonates with you

If you have ever invested in a course, a coach or a therapist and felt really let down because it didn't deliver what you were hoping for, and if that disappointment is still sitting somewhere inside you making you hesitate or hold back or feel quietly foolish for having hoped so hard, I want you to know that what you are feeling makes complete sense and you are absolutely not alone in it.

Inside the RESET Room I added a tapping audio called When Support Doesn't Turn Out as You'd Hoped and it is for exactly this feeling, for the moments when hope meets reality and the gap between the two feels too heavy to carry.

Join the RESET Room HERE I would love to see you in there.