I’m Here For Self-Development, Not Self-Improvement
Wording is key
Self-improvement has become an alluring trend that brings to mind images of our best selves, living out our best lives.
Sounds great. Who doesn’t want to improve?
Me.
Let’s take a minute to mull over semantics, and I’ll tell you why you don’t, either.
“Improvement”
The dictionary definition is:
However, why is your current state undesirable? Hasn’t it taught you and provided you with valuable insight? Isn’t it part of your overall process?
Why isn’t it excellent? Will conceptualizing it as anything but really help?
Self-improvement implies that you need to be fixed.
It also implies that there is one ideal way to be, and you’re quite frankly not there.
Yet how are you to know what this more desirable and excellent condition is?
The best self you strive for will change over time as you are shaped by each of your experiences. These will continually inform you about what’s important and what’s not, what you want and what you don’t.
It’s your current state, right now, that reveals what you wish to strive for.
“Development”
This term, on the other hand, is defined as:
Self-development implies that you have the potential for growth.
The term generates a sense of freedom. It focuses on the subjective process of cultivating yourself, and it honours wherever you are now as a valid and necessary part of that process.
The power of “development”
Does it truly matter whether you think about self-improvement versus self-development?
Our thoughts determine the focus of our attention—so, yes.
I’ve found that progress starts from a place of acceptance. Nothing will shift if you expend all your energy fixating on personal shortcomings. This only reinforces frustration and self-deprecation.
Change and progress require hope and curiosity.
It doesn’t matter whether you are actually flawed to the degree you believe. That’s irrelevant. The point is: to become the person you want to be, the path of least resistance involves accepting who you are currently.
Tap into the value of your current state
Every “problem” you observe within yourself holds a message.
Choose one aspect of yourself to develop and be curious.
Think about what you do and how you feel. Ask yourself why. Ask yourself what needs lie beneath your “flaws.”
What can you learn from your current state?
Whoever you are right now is sufficient.
Don’t improve it—develop it.
