Member-only story
Why I Quit Self-Improvement & Why It’s Pointless
The imperfect self is the one doing the self-improving
I’ve always loved self-improvement.
I loved goal setting, making changes, and reaching the next level. That was until it became clear there was a fundamental problem with all of that.
When you get far enough into the self-growth space, you start to question the self.
Then it becomes glaringly obvious — self-improvement is a paradox.
The self is a phantom identity, trying to improve while being the improver.
Who’s doing the improving?
Alan Watts put this conundrum well.
“Now, in this quest [of self improvement] there is the obvious difficulty that if I am in need of improvement, the person who is going to do the improving is the one who needs to be improved. And there, immediately, we have a vicious circle.” — Alan Watts.
I love this quote. It reminds me of the words of Ramana Maharishi:
To ask the mind to kill the mind is like making the thief the policeman. He will go with you and pretend to catch the thief, but nothing will be gained. So you must turn inward and see from where the mind rises and then it will cease to exist.
