Self-development and Self-improvement.
Both topics are talked about quite often online, and often interchangeably.
However these topics are actually opposite ends on the path of self-actualization.
That's a lot of selves! Let's break down each term so we're all on the same page:
Self-Improvement: The process of building new skills, improving capacities like strength and focus and gaining new habits and routines. This is the work done to bring you closer to your goals.
Self-development: in The process of removing old beliefs that no longer serve you, removing frictions and letting go of maladaptive response patterns. Removing barriers that hold you back.
Self-actualization: The process of reaching your highest latent potential. It is usually brought forth by a mix of self-improvement and self-development.
Self-actualization is probably closer to what people have in mind when they think of self-improvement. Focusing on only one of these paths, however, you’re leaving a lot of growth on the table.
The process of becoming is about addition and subtraction. You add things of who you want to be, and remove conditioning that no longer serves you.
Self-Improvement: Addition work.
Self Improvement is super popular online, and for good reason.
Going to the gym, building a business, reading self-help books or new philosophies.
Self-improvement is:
Attractive
Measurable
Inspiring
Self-improvement is visible, and shows your progress toward achieving your goals.
I call this addition work, because the core structure of our self-concept remains the same. This is why body dysmorphia is so rampant among gym-goers. No matter how big you get, you still see yourself where you started. The internal perception of lesser stays the same.
Take a house.
Self-Improvement is home renovation, like adding new decor, putting in new furniture or carpets.
The house itself remains the same, but it looks different.
Self-development: Subtraction work.
On the other end, Self development is like Structural renovation. You may have to break a couple things before you can put it back together.
In reality, it’s not as ominous as it sounds.
Self-development is:
Quiet
Immeasurable
Not necessarily a ‘skill’
Meditating, journaling or therapy are methods of self-development.
It clears the noise, allowing you to focus on the things that truly matter.
None of the growth that occurs here can be forced, either. We can stretch our cognitive limits by taking up a difficult task, forcing growth in self-improvement. Self-development doesn’t work that way. Its growth is akin to a plant. If you try and force a plant to grow faster, the opposite usually occurs.
Subtraction and addition: Complementary opposites.
As mentioned earlier, neither path alone will arrive at self-realization.
Both are necessary, and often complementary.
The meditations allow for increased focus during study.
The growth provided by the gym allows one to break down their insecurities more clearly when journaling.
The problem arises when these are taken as opposing forces.
The self-development types will over-value self-acceptance that neglects the growth provided from stretching ones skills, physically and mentally.
The self-improvement types will over-value the discipline in showing up to the gym everyday, fighting against the old habitual systems instead of letting them go.
Taken together, however, we have a unique opportunity for flow :D
Flow: The pinnacle of self-actualization
Flow arises when the stillness of self-development is met with the challenges of self-improvement.
If we are facing too much internal resistance, flow cannot occur.
If we are not rising to external challenges, flow cannot occur.
It doesn’t matter then, what it is that we choose to do. It matters that we choose to do anything at all, to the best of our ability, for the sake of growth.
If we choose our goals for our own growth, then, rather than to achieve money, status, or acknowledgement, we can put our all into a task.
Not for what we might get for doing it, but for its own sake.
Your work will be more pure.
You’ll probably get a better external reward too, but it won't matter as much at that stage.
You are now on a path for self-actualization, what we are all here to accomplish.
Thats all for today. This concept has probably been broken down somewhere else, but not to my current knowledge. If you see a similar idea somewhere else, let me know! If not, I’ll take the burden of coming up with this concept 😇
I hope you enjoyed reading, let me know any points that really stuck out!
And as always, I hope you have yourself a damn good one :D