What concept/idea/version(s) of self improvement are you referring to? All? Are you thinking there is a better way no one has discovered yet? I'm curious.
Most self improvement scenarios go like this:
1. Individual feels they have a weakness that makes them unhappy
2. Individual creates a goal to (over)compensate for said weakness
3. Individual struggles toward goal in hopes that when goal is reached he/she receives an emotional reward
4. Individual either does not reach goal and feels worse about themselves
5. Individual reaches goal and receives emotional reward but reward is short lived and the whole process starts again.
I'm wondering if in some cases the struggle/reward cycle is actually more harmful than the original weakness.
Perhaps a better way to change a weakness is not to tackle it head-on and wrestle with it but to wear it down slowly over time or even learn to live with it.
I'm wondering if more people could experience more happiness by detaching it(happiness) from the promise of some future emotional reward and rather by finding it in real time.
Also the very concept of self improvement as it stands now seems to encourage people to expend more energy compensating for their weaknesses rather than expanding on their strengths.
Maybe people would be more fulfilled if less emphasis was put on "doing" and more was put on "being"?
I don't know, just some stuff I've been thinking about. Don't really have a good handle on it yet. But I'm trying to come up with a different way of looking at things for myself personally.
And yes, there could even be a better way that no one has discovered yet.
