We, as people, are like trees. We have leaves, branches and roots that constitute our attitude, behaviours and personalities. However, half of our roots are unhealthy, spreading the infection to the rest of the healthy ones.
We are then presented with two options. First, we can constantly polish, nurture and preserve all of the roots. This would cause the infected roots to constantly sprout more unhealthy leaves. Second, we can completely destroy the infected parts, terminating any chance of further damage to the tree. The first choice can be characterised as “self improvement”. We try to add more to the already infected leaf, trying to overshadow it with solutions. Though this causes temporary gratification for the plant, the long term implications still linger, and this never touches the root of the problem. The second choice however, can be characterised as “self destruction”. The months of the growth process became futile, and the tree needs to regrow from square one; however, the tree is able to now grow without the risk of infection, even if the time it takes is long. In other words, the second option allows for the full potential for the tree to be clean and cured.
Of course, the purpose of the above story is to illustrate the futility in self improvement insofar as self destruction never happened. The message is that pursuing self improvement in any facet is merely a form of short-term gratification. It’s fruitless. It’s akin to masturbation. It makes you feel good, but prevents genuine personal growth.
Yet, we are constantly drawn into self improvement today. This very website is the essence of it, giving nuanced specific advice on how to improve your life… when this doesn't solve anything. Given you are truly unfulfilled with your life, taking advice stating that doodling, music, going to gym and taking ice baths will solve your problems isn’t true. It’s simply a coping mechanism. You get temporary relief from knowing that your body is jacked from going to the gym, you get temporary relief from knowing that you took an ice bath, but it does not solve the problem.
To put this into perspective, let’s say you were an alcoholic. However, instead of tackling the root problem of your alcoholism, you instead go to the gym and take ice baths. Will you now magically be living a dignified life? I say no. So instead, the right solution would be… TO STOP DRINKING. Evidently, this long term solution will have by far the most impact.
The reason we don’t do this is because the process is extremely difficult as we are losing a substantial portion of ourselves, which we are afraid to let go of. In other words, we have a tendency to lie to ourselves and avoid truth in order to feel pleasure. We constantly scroll educational content online, in order to avoid the action of studying, whilst still feeling like we’re being productive. We glorify being alone and portray ourselves as “introverted” when in reality, we’re too scared to socially interact. Instead of acknowledging the reality that these actions are damaging, we rationalize them. Instead of fixing our inherent issues, we cope by forcing our brains into thinking we are fixing ourselves through self improvement.
If you came to this website to truly be the best version of yourself, you need to understand that constantly reading blogs and mindlessly consuming content will have no impact if you never take the time to reflect specifically on yourself. In order to become the best version of ourselves, we need to destroy our old identity. We constantly strive for more, when what we need is less..
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