What’s the Point of Self-Improvement Anyway?

There’s a paradox with self-improvement and it is this: the ultimate goal of all self-improvement is to reach the point where you no longer feel the need to improve yourself. Think about it: The whole goal of improving your productivity is to reach the point where you never have to think about how to be more productive. The whole point of pursuing happiness is to reach the point where one no longer has to think about being happy. The whole point of improving your relationships is so that you can enjoy some drama-free cunnilingus in the McDonald’s drive-thru without almost crashing the car. (Still working on …

Self-love is the basis for self-improvement

There’s a quandary I hear people talk about a lot in the self-improvement world which goes something like this: “Should I keep trying to change, or should I just learn to love myself?” The people posing this question almost invariably feel terrible about themselves, and further, they assume that’s par for the course. It isn’t. In fact this whole “self-love vs self-improvement” thing is a false dilemma, one that badly misunderstands the role of self-love. This equates loving yourself with thinking you’re just fine the way you are. It treats self-love as a reward for being the person you want …

How to Supercharge Your Learning and Self-Improvement

One of my favorite pieces of ancient wisdom comes from the Stoic philosopher Epictetus: We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak. Sure, that may not be the real reason we have two ears and one mouth, but it reveals a useful pattern that we see repeated in communication in general. Communication essentially has two parts: transmission and reception. These will manifest differently depending on the medium, but the general scheme is the same. Textual Communication: writing and reading Verbal Communication: speaking and listening Pictorial communication: displaying and viewing Simply Put, 2:1 Is Key …