The Self Improvement Industry

What is self improvement?

Are we talking about the same thing when we're talking about improving the self?

Does it mean self realization? Does it imply self-help? Or is it self actualization we're talking about. Perhaps self achievement? Gratification. Perfection. Self realization. Whatever.

Improvement of the self

• What is the self?
• What does it mean to improve?

What is the aim, the goal, the purpose? Improve what? Improve how?

Define it. People are using the same words but the meaning and the context can differ. There's a myriad of definitions, variations and perceptions of what the term self improvement actually is, what it means. But for the sake of this discussion, why not, you know.. define it.

Self improvement consists of two words: self and improvement.

So far so good. It's just two words, and hopefully we can all agree on this one? "Self improvement" is two words. Pedantic linguists might disagree even at this point: These are not words! No, it's just one word. Or five words. Or it depends on the context, or the day. Today, it's two words. And these are:

• SELF. The first word.
• IMPROVEMENT. The second word.

Great. Progress! We have identified the first word, and the second word.

These two words are the composing building blocks of self improvement. The basis of all self-help. The fundamental and integral parts of the this widely discussed term.

Fake Self Improvement And Phony "Gurus"

The self improvement industry is where you will find the most sleazy people, salesmen of trashy products and fishy services. The self improvement industry can be quite hideous.

It's loaded with crap, pseudoscience, new age, BS.

Change your life clickbait. Change your life for just $39.99. Change your life, with this one weird trick.

Regurgitated puke baked and barfed in a pot of spew. Hello shabby douche guru promoting tacky harmful material disguised as self-help potential.

Show us that beautiful stock photo smile of yours. Give us that pointless talk. Preach happiness and success to the world. Upsell your BS.

We're all exasperated by the noise and BS from the fake self-help "gurus"?

The best you can do is to learn to identify these BS gurus, fake stock-photo-smile jerks. Learn to spot the scum, and then ignore it if you can. Avoid like the plague.

But the thing is: Avoiding the most obvious BS scammers in the self-help industry should be easy. Ignoring the mediocre "coaches" can be done. But good luck in finding the very best advice for you, in your life, that would make the best impact and change your life for the better.

There is perhaps no such thing as universal path to self improvement. We're all different.

Your Best Self Does Not Require A Self-help Library

You don't need to read a million books on self improvement to improve yourself, or to improve your life, or to improve anything.

How do you improve yourself? How do you improve your life? And not in a small way? How do you massively improve everything in your life?

The good news is that you already know the answers to all these questions.

You know this.

You already know how to improve.

Seriously.

In a minute we will prove this fact, and you will experience it. It won't cost you anything. You won't have to sign up for anything. You will not need to buy anything. This just works.

You are not stupid.

You are not dumb.

You already know how to fix this.

You are capable of more than you might realize.

You are way thougher than you think.

But, there is a chance that you do not believe this.

In fact, there is a high probability that you have been duped. It's a possibility that you've been influenced and mislead by the self improvement industry, or duped by other forces, such as a sneaky ideology, twisted culture, or other warped aspects of society.

The self help industry is a far-reaching monster with global span and is capable of speaking directly to your unconscious. Your brain might not have any natural defense mechanism for the tricks they will play on you.

People get themselves exposed to manipulative self-help ads, read devious self-improvement articles, buy canny self-enhancement books, and end up at manipulative self-growth seminars.

The self-upgrade carousel is fake, rotten and dangerous.

These things will not only drain your wallet, and it won't help you with the things it's supposed to achive.

You were seeking improvement, change, the good things. What you got was harm, a decline in living standards, decreased health, deteriorated mental capabilities, lower feelings of self-worth, or worse, a synthetically imploded ego, corrupted thoughts, damaged routines, and a polluted mind.

The self-help industry won't improve your life. And you know it.

Don't buy into it.

So how do you start improving your life?

Again, you already know the answer.

The Stuff in Your Life

Basically, the stuff in your life is either:

• good stuff, or
• bad stuff

Life is not black and white. It's more like a gradient.

What is the good stuff in your life?

What is the bad stuff in your life?

Stuff can't be both good and bad.

Sometimes it can be hard to know for sure. And only time will tell.

But for the most part, for most stuff, it's really easy. And you know. Don't pretend that you don't know. You are not stupid. So why do you still chose the bad stuff? It's not because you are stupid. It's because you are lying. You are scamming. You're a scammer.

You are lying to yourself.

There is bad stuff in your life that you do not control. Accept it. Life is hard and there is nothing you can do about it other than go on with it.

Then there is all the bad stuff in your life that you do control. You've accepted these things into your life. It's your fault. And you can remove it. So why don't you?

Why Are You Treating Yourself Like S**t?

No, we do not know each other.

But statistically, this is what people do.

They treat themselves like shit. Not all the time, but occasionally. Once a month, every other week, a couple of times every day. Sometimes. Not all the time. Just now and then.

It's not okay. It's not okay to treat your parents as shit. Not cool to treat your children as shit. Not fair to treat your husband, wife or partner as shit. Not fair to treat your friends as shit. Mostly, it's not okay to treat anyone as shit. Even kids know this. It's basic wisdom. If there is one exception, it applies to a**holes: If other people treat you as shit, feel free to reciprocate.

It's not okay to treat others as shit, so why do you treat yourself as shit? The exception to the rule does not apply to self: You shouldn't treat yourself as shit even if you're an a**hole.

You cannot justify treating yourself as shit. There is never a good time to treat yourself as shit. Not once. Never. So don't do it.

Why do you feel like shit?

Could it be that it's because you are treating yourself as... no, could it be?

You are not stupid. And this is easy.

It's not hard to fix this. You know how to do it.

Improve The Things You Do The Most

This makes sense.

The tedious tasks of everyday life might not be the obvious place to start improving, but it's easy. And improving the things you do every day will have a noticeable impact.

Think about this for a while, and you will realize the importance. No reason to read more about this, but plenty of reasons to start thinking about it. Think about this every day.

How can you improve the stuff you do the most?

True Self Improvement Hacks And Heuristics

Wouldn't it be great if someone just gave you the best self improvement advice. Literally the best advice you could be given for self improvement at this point in life. The best action you could take, right now, to improve your life. That would be awesome. But it doesn't work like that. Life is hard. Life is easy. Life is complicated. Life isn't that complicated. Life is life.

The ultimate book on self improvement does not exist.

Here's some self improvement hacks, with no guarantee whatsoever. They might work for you, they might be bad advice, and they could change your life for better or worse.

• Be pleasant to people. Not obligatory for every person you meet: Exceptions can be made, especially when dealing with a**holes.
• Improve everyday, everything, everybody. Develop a mindset of continuous improvement.
• Adapt to change. Everything around you is changing. You need to adapt.

(Guest post)