The False Promise of a Better Me

<p>I&#39;ve been a #selfhelp #selfimprovement #selfdevelopment junkie for decades. </p> <p>I&#39;ve spent tens of thousands of dollars on books, programs, curricula, behavior modification, weight loss, smoking cessation, discipleship training, and seeking my vision in the wilderness. If I had invested that money in making more money, I would be comfortably retired by now.</p> <p>For all the time, money, and effort, I would have hoped for a better result. </p> <p>As Jamie Smart says, shouldn&#39;t light be streaming from all my orifices by now? But I&#39;m not much, if any, different than I was before all of this. I struggle with the same things, think the same negative thoughts, worry about everything, and don&#39;t see the improvement I&#39;ve been striving for. I use the techniques - mindset shifts, meditation, yoga, nature walks, writing my desires and goals clearly, clarifying my intentions, and doing all the prescribed work - but I&#39;m no better off as a person or in life.</p> <p>Don&#39;t get me wrong, I haven&#39;t had anything better to do. </p> <p>There are worse ways to spend a life. I&#39;ve learned a lot about everything along the way, but I&#39;ve realized that most of my work has been in the wrong direction. I never challenged some important assumptions about the promise of a better me. Until recently, I haven&#39;t considered that many of the beliefs I&#39;ve constructed about myself weren&#39;t mine. They came from other people. Another #realization I&#39;ve had is that many of the messages about myself I&#39;ve bought into were intended to persuade me to buy something. And the king of all assumptions is that there is a &quot;me&quot; in the first place, let alone to make it better.</p> <p>What if the me that is the object of all the betterment isn&#39;t anything more than a bundle of thoughts?</p> <p>More to read on my blog: https://www.franklintaggart.com/2023/12/the-false-promise-of-better-me.html</p> --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/franklin-taggart9/