🌳 The Self-improvement Death Trap

QUOTE OF THE DAY

DON’T GET CAUGHT IN THE SELF-IMPROVEMENT TRAP

370 Words | 1 Min 21 Sec Read

A member of The Kaizen team was speaking to his friend recently and discovered something rather shocking that counters all the self-improvement advice we know and love and urged us to share the story.

His friend (let’s call him Ben) has been on a self-improvement journey for years. He developed habits, learnt time management, Is in the best shape of his life and has a thriving business yet he noted that when asking Ben how everything was going he said that he constantly fell into these traps of despair. These periods of annoyance, low self-esteem and sadness yet wasn’t entirely sure why.

Ben had everything he wanted and more, he was growing every single day and had a strong relationship, basically, everything ticked off the checklist yet the problem was that Ben is human, therefore Ben can’t grow every single day. There are days when Ben is travelling or doing something outside his own routine that is out of his control which results in him not sticking to the habits and rules he made for himself that he’s developed over the past few years.

The problem with this is that the higher and faster you rise, the harder and faster you fall, Ben had built this air-tight routine and lifestyle to live by and he’s so deep in the mindset of self-improvement that as soon as he slips up or makes a mistake, his whole world comes crashing down. His insecurities pop back up again, his self-esteem drops and he feels like a failure. Like he’s starting from day one.

The real issue here is that Ben started his self-improvement journey ignoring the fact that he is human, he positioned himself as a soldier, 100% constant growth with no mistakes and no stepping out of line or else he punishes himself. This is no way to improve yourself let alone live as it is pretty much guaranteed that you will mess up and to then punish yourself and be in this rut will only stunt your growth more.

Ben overcame this by planning for slip-ups and lowering the intensity at which he is trying to grow as he understands there is more longevity in it (and fewer ups and downs!).

ACTIONABLE NEXT STEPS:

Understand you’re not a robot, you need to analyse your growth based on the previous version of yourself. Are you better than you were 2 months ago? If so ignore the noise and the day-to-day and keep pushing forward.

TAKEAWAYS:

Don’t fall into the trap of relentless self-improvement. Leave room for failure and slip-ups and treat them as part of the process.

BOOK OF THE WEEK ⤵️

The book of the week is ‘Start with why’ By Simon Sinek. A book about how great leaders inspire everyone to take action and in premise how you can do the same. It’s a book about human psychology and not one to miss out on. Check it out HERE

CREATOR OF THE WEEK ⤵️

The creator of the week is @tomnoske, He’s an Australian-based creator that makes content focused on helping you build your own personal brand and improve yourself in many ways. He shares knowledge, Insights and tips on how to become a better version of yourself. Check him out HERE

INTRODUCING MECO ⤵️

Revolutionize the way you read newsletters

Meco is a distraction-free space for reading newsletters outside the inbox. The app is completely free and packed with features designed to supercharge your learnings from your favourite writers. Become a more productive reader and cut out the noise with Meco - try the app today!

LESSON OF THE DAY ⤵️

The more time you spend complaining about what you deserve, the less time you have to focus on what you can create. Focus on what you can control.