Self-Improvement Is An Evolution
One of the biggest points of resistance I get from people who aren’t like us, who don’t invest in their self-improvement, is: “If I choose to do self-improvement I’m basically admitting that I’m not good enough as I am, and I don’t like that.”
I hear where they’re coming from, but I have a different perspective. I see our growth as a dynamic process that’s never-ending. It’s an evolution that is only possible because we take who we were and build on top of it. Our current self is required to evolve from.
It’s not that you aren’t healthy enough or that you weigh too much… It’s that your current self and your years of living have prepared you for this moment to commit to being healthier.
It’s not that you’ve wasted your life in a dead end job or relationship that was never going to work… It’s that you now have more experience to know where your skills can make the greatest contribution, and better identify who you’re more compatible with.
Nothing is still in life. Everything exists as an equilibrium.
The idea of ‘balance’ isn’t static but rather constant micro-corrections to maintain a neutral position. So understanding that everything is constantly changing around us, we’re best served to meet the moment and maximize ourselves within an ever changing environment.
Now if I’m speaking directly to the self-improvement skeptic’s perspective, who feels like seeking improvement is unhealthy, I’d argue that there are greater consequences to not taking personal growth seriously. Having no room for improvement implies that we’re achieving perfection as we are, and I personally find that hard to believe.
The tricky part is - I understand there's religious context that refers to being made perfectly in the image of God, and seeing imperfection in ourselves is choosing to see imperfection in God.
I can’t comment on that and I support whatever your beliefs are.
What I’m attempting to share, and found to be true for myself, is that people can change - Change themselves, change their life, and change their contribution toward others when they commit to their own self-growth.
And knowing that our growth journey is just an evolution from who we are now into who we are becoming, we realize that we’re constantly building off of our current foundation, where everything before it happened in a perfectly crafted way to support our personal evolution.