Calissa Jones
You can be anything you want; your future is.. well, yours. It’s the standard convention of inspirational posts, mushy ads, and bumper stickers. No matter who you are, if you work hard enough, there’s nothing you can’t do. It’s the American Dream wrapped up in an innocent little bow.
That bow adorns countless stories- the rags to riches ramblings of entrepreneurs, the succulent success stories of soulful singers, the transparent tales of tv personalities- but more recently, it has been added as the final promise of an array of products perfect for the holiday season. Self-improvement has claimed the dream as its own.
Amongst the ringleaders of the movement is the self-help gurus. Charles Duhigg, author of The Power of Habit, reveals a process to attain good habits and dissolve bad ones: identify your routine, experiment with rewards, isolate the cue, and make a plan. Simple, sweet, short, and an easy way to work harder and be better. Thomas Frank, author and Youtuber, has his own set of philosophies; utilize the Pomodoro technique, the Eisenhower method, the this and the that recommended by various leaders and experts. Other movements of minimalism and fitness have crafted their own recipes for reaching peak happiness and discovering the ever-elusive quality of being content.
Building these habits can reputedly cure mental and monetary issues, as stated by their proponents. Better schedules can blossom motivation, fitness can forever release endorphins, and minimalism stretches your wallet. However, as the saying goes, every action has an equal and opposite reaction. While Newton’s adage may apply only to physics, the yin-yang of give and take applies psychologically with self-improvement. The line lies between self-improvement and self-acceptance, a gray area that psychologists have yet to fully separate. If you need to improve yourself every day to reach happiness and success, how can you ever be content with the present?
Plagued by such a question, movement leaders cite the positives of increased productivity found in participants. However, the issue comes down to productivity’s inevitable shadow: burnout. As a “loss of motivation, growing sense of depletion, and cynicism,” burnout can stem from the fast-paced lifestyle associated with many self-improvement schedules. With another project around every corner, psychology journalist Alexandra Michel says that that there is a higher risk of feeling a lack of accomplishment.
The depth of the problem cascades well beyond burnout. While burnout can be solved by a reset in the form of a vacation or restructuring one’s day- or perhaps a therapist- the roots of self-improvement often settle in a sense of insecurity. With the current culture of optimizing work and appearance, some use the movement in at attempt to reach impossible perfection. Condemned to dissatisfaction, these pseudo-perfectionists can jeopardize their self-respect. To the extremes, this can lead to mental illnesses like depression or anorexia. Even before that, without self-respect, it’s easy to become an insatiable critic in outlook and inward reflection. Without it, in the words of author Joan Didion, there is no courage in mistakes, no discipline in the habit of mind. This culminates in an interminable insecurity backed by too much faith in the satisfaction of achievement in productivity goals.
Self-help comes through in one aspect: it offers the opportunity for personal growth. Those who take it too far attempt to solve their appearance in worth and merit to the outside world, but inwardly lose everything of true value. However, with moderation and a grain of salt, self-improvement can be a valuable habit to promote success in life. No solution has all the answers, but the journey in finding them can be in itself enough to balance improvement and acceptance.