Photo by Lala Azizli on Unsplash
Introduction
The internet is full of self-improvement content. A quick Google search will yield around 1,130,000,000 results, a number which will inevitably rise by the time this article is published.
However, when we search for the negative aspects of self-improvement, the search returns considerably less results.
Negative aspects such as the endless chase for more, too much learning and not enough doing, and that’s before we consider the negative impacts on our self-image.
That being said, this isn’t an article to bash on self-improvement. In fact I believe self-improvement to be a fantastic tool to improve your life, relationships and generally grow as a person - but it is important to consider two things:
1. Your relationship with self-improvement.
2. The diminishing returns of self-improvement.
Your Relationship with Self-Improvement
Below is a figure showing the increasing interest in self-improvement over the past 10 years. For those of you unaware of Google Trends, a value of 100 represents peak popularity for that search term (‘self-improvement’ in this case).
But why is this important?
This is important because it could represent our increasing unhappiness and dissatisfaction with ourselves. After all, when we feel the need to improve ourselves we imply that we are not good enough as we are.
“After all, if it’s true that we can become ‘more’ than we are right now, we must surely be less.” - Steven Bartlett (Happy Sexy Millionaire)
This point is one which garners a lot, arguably the majority of attention when people consider the downsides of self-improvement - and it is important, after all…
How can you ever be happy if you’re stuck in a cycle of feeling inadequate?
Knowing that you’re enough as you are, and choosing to develop yourself is vastly different than developing yourself because you feel as though you have to, for money, status or approval.
This is the difference between self-improvement for others and self-improvement for yourself. Although a lot has already been said about this, what I’d like to talk about is something that attracts much less attention…
Diminishing Returns
So you’re in, you’ve drunk the Kool-Aid, you’ve watched the Tony Robbins video and you’re ready to go - great… now what?
Now you start making progress and begin to feel good about yourself (fantastic!), but you start to notice that you aren’t making as much progress as you once were and plateau.
‘No problem!’ You think, you’ll just put a little more time in - and the progress resumes… for a while.
Then comes the next plateau, and instead of adding more time, you up the intensity this time, and the progress continues.
Eventually however - you hit the big one. The point at which your gains are a lot less than when you first started. Although you’ve likely made considerable progress by this point (which is always worth remembering), the returns on your investment are simply not what they used to be.
This is when you need to decide whether to…
Push Forward or Turn Back?
Once we reach the point where our time and intensity no longer provides the progress we are looking for its time to ask yourself two questions:
Do I feel pleasure from doing the activity in and of itself, regardless of the outcomes? and if not — are the marginal gains worth the time and intensity required to progress?
If you get enjoyment from simply doing the activity that is great, continue doing it and having fun. However if that activity is something you don’t enjoy, you need to ask yourself if the pain is worth it - and perhaps it is, but that is for you to decide.
One way to approach this is to think about quitting.
The Quitting Framework
Quitting has a negative stigma, and if we stop doing something we are seen as lacking commitment or being lazy, but our time is finite and consequently so are the number of opportunities we can accept.
There are thousands, if not tens of thousands of opportunities we can be pursuing at any given time - but there isn’t enough time to pursue them all.
Therefore we need to prioritise and decide what to continue and what to quit. One way that I’ve found helpful is using Steven Bartlett’s quitting framework:
The simple flowchart above gives us a framework to decide whether to continue down a given path — try it for yourself and let me know how you get on in the comments below.
Another way to approach quitting is to compare your current project with other opportunities you have available - considering the opportunity cost. Another question to ask yourself could be:
Are the marginal gains on project X worth losing the considerable gains on project Y?
Given the time that you have available - would you rather make 1% progress on project X, or 10% progress on project Y? Again, only you can decide what is genuinely important.
Strategically Underachieving
If you truly can’t decide whether to quit something, and enjoy all of your projects equally, it’s time to think about strategic underachievement.
An idea from the book Four Thousand Weeks, strategic underachievement refers to deliberately prioritising one area of your life, knowing that another will (temporarily) get left behind.
“You’ll inevitably end up underachieving at something, simply because your time and energy are finite. But the great benefit of strategic underachievement — that is, nominating in advance whole areas of life in which you won’t expect excellence of yourself — is that you focus that time and energy more effectively.” - Oliver Burkeman (Four Thousand Weeks)
As Burkeman suggests, strategic underachievement is a way to focus your energy more effectively by accepting underachievement.
Then once you’ve made progress on your primary project, it’s time to let it take a back seat while you focus on another.
Conclusion
The popularity of self-improvement continues to rise and, despite the potential downsides, can be a great way to learn and grow.
That being said, the unfortunate truth is that we cannot progress at the same rate indefinitely, and eventually the return on investment will begin to slow down.
When this happens ask yourself:
1. Do I feel pleasure from doing the activity in and of itself, regardless of the outcomes?
2. Are the marginal gains worth the time and intensity required to progress?
3. Are the marginal gains on project X worth losing the considerable gains on project Y?
Your time is finite, as are the number of things you can do with it. This is the hand we have all been dealt - but there is no need to despair.
As long as you spend the time actively thinking about prioritising your projects instead of passively engaging in them, you’re on the right track.
Prioritisation isn’t something you should be doing, it’s something you are already doing — whether you realise it or not.
Once you know what is truly important to you, it’s time to prioritise. We can do a lot of things, but we can’t do everything — so it’s time to replace the good with the great and focus on the things that bring you genuine happiness.
Thank You
If you made it this far thank you — I appreciate you taking the time to read my work and sincerely hope you enjoyed it. If you would like to continue reading, I’ve included a few of my most popular articles below.
Thanks again,
Rob