I’m Sick of Self-Improvement

Key points

Self-improvement is a treadmill we can choose to step off of.

Even process-oriented practices, like meditation, can become their own kind of striving for achievement.

There is no need for self-improvement because we are all already enough.

Recently someone offered me a couple of books on the spiritual healing arts from a respected author—for free. It was the kind of offer I once would have responded positively to, taken them gratefully, and brought them home to sit on my “to be read” shelf. Maybe I would have tried to read them, maybe I would have even completed them. Instead, what I heard myself saying, with unusual frankness, was, “No thanks. I’m sick of self-improvement.”

There is a whole cottage industry devoted to helping us achieve better versions of ourselves. I sh