Does Self Improvement Have An Expiry Date?
Best Before: (Date When Satisfied With Life)
“The only real test of intelligence is if you get what you want out of life.” - Naval Ravikant
It might be helpful to think of this as part 2 of the newsletter from 2 weeks ago.
I have a weekly video call with a good friend in the UK and came to a minor epiphany while talking through some thoughts yesterday.
What if self improvement isn’t for me anymore?
I don’t mean it in the literal sense of the word, of course you should always striving to improve yourself somehow.
I mean it in the cold plungy, side hustley, 500 days of meditation type self improvement that pervades self help books and social media guru accounts.
The theoretical purpose of self improvement content is to improve the reader’s life. What if my life is already great?
Self help practices are all effective from taking people who are dissatisfied with their life and giving them a direction to move in. I’m extremely satisfied with my life.
My job and colleagues are great
My health is average to good
The inner texture of my mind is calm 90% of days
My family is wonderful (the parts I can control anyways)
We are very financially secure
My day to day life feels rewarding
Self improvement was helpful in the stage of my life where I was single, dorky, shy and out of shape. It was the medicine I needed when I was sick with an unsatisfactory life. But as with any sickness, once you’ve cured the ailment, you stop taking the medicine.
Going back to the concept of What I Want To Want:
As far as I can tell, becoming wealthier or self actualized through these self help practices wouldn’t materially change how I spend my day to day life.
I might have a slightly bigger house, hire some housekeepers, make it to a couple more Leaf’s games or go on an extra vacation or two each year. But, if I’m patient and wait a decade, that is a financial inevitability anyways.
Now instead these self improvement practices only serve as a means of self-flagellation and increased anxiety when I fail. With, as we just discussed, little or only cosmetic upside.
They increase friction in my life and decrease the amount of time I have for other things.
My challenge to you is this:
Are there things in your life you’re still doing out of habit despite them having already fixed a problem you set out to solve years ago? We almost always think we have to improve our lives through addition.
“If I just find that new habit or hack or tip everything will get better.”
We never think about how to improve life through subtraction even though it can be equally or more powerful. It usually gives you back time and money to reinvest more effectively elsewhere.