how [[not]] to self-improve

Great news people!

We just passed the cross-quarter day that marks the halfway point between the winter solstice and the spring equinox. Spring is around the corner! (h/t Austin Kleon)

It also means January has been and gone. We all know Jan is a great time to think about Jan resolutions. I’ve always enjoyed getting caught up in the new year refresh way of thinking as it’s a great time to focus on self-improvement.

I find self-improvement properly exciting. It promises a better version of ourselves through fairly simple habits and changes. Ideally, these changes are actually pretty fun - like the feeling you get after nailing a gym session - which makes it easier to stick to them. And they should usually be cheap or even free. Stuff like reading, running, going to bed earlier.

By making sure these changes are fun (or at least satisfying) and cheap, they can slot easily into our lives, like clicking a jigsaw piece into place.

Great sales pitch right? Self-improvement is a slam dunk. Easy to do, plenty to choose from. So why don’t we all do it?

During lockdown I got reallllyyyy into self-improvement - books, podcasts, videos. I had a lot more time to think about myself and try and make some changes. Writing this email was a big one.

From there I decided to start writing about the things I was learning. I love sharing and ‘teaching’, but it’s also a great way for me to think about the things I’ve read/learned/watched/listened to, rather than it going through’t one ear and out’other.

But here’s the tough question: how much of it has made a difference to my life? How much have I improved myself?

Truthfully, I’ve laid off the whole self-improvement thing over the last year or so. It had become a hobby, something I consumed but didn’t do anything with.

And there’s the problem.

When you start to live, breathe, sleep, and eat self-improvement, it becomes a hobby instead of a goal.

(h/t Austin Harvey)

For some this means the unending persuit of improvement and the realisation that you’ll never be the finished article. I think that’s a bit daft - nobody will ever be perfect. The bigger problem is that the consumption of self-improvement starts and ends with the consumption. No action. Lots of reading about these fantastic new habits, but nothing more.

Too much planning and not enough doing.

Planning is fine up to a point, but eventually it becomes another form of procrastination. Creating a gym routine is satisfying because it almost feels like you’re doing the thing, but you haven’t actually been to the gym yet. Plus, it’s the actual doing of the thing that informs the planning - trying different exercises, gyms, movements.

So, here’s how (not) to self-improve:

• Think super long term, so far ahead in fact that it feels like you’ll never really reach the version of yourself you want to achieve. Definitely don’t focus on shorter timeframes - a month or 12 weeks at a time, for example

• Be completely vague and unfocused on what you’re currently focusing on. Don’t go deep on that particular area. Instead, go from one thing to another. If you’re trying to focus on sleeping better, make sure to skip from sleep books, to diets, to productivity and more

• Don’t read meta stuff like Atomic Habits - a great explainer on introducing and sticking to useful habits that will help you imrpove

• Don’t track your progress. Make sure you stay away from these great ways to track your progress - Goodreads, Myfitnesspal, weigh yourself, Strava, github, progress photos. Tracking is essential in all walks of life - what can be measured can be improved, otherwise you’re just shooting in the dark, which is the perfect way to not self-improve

Any more? Let me know.

This week I'm: ⬇️

Some interesting stuff worth sharing.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Visiting Edinburgh - beautiful place, every building seems to tell its own story, history everywhere. I wrote up some recommendations (which I’m now going to do for every place I visit so that I don’t have to remember what I did a year down the line) if you’re planning to visit in the near future - Edinburgh recommendations

🚄 Enjoying the 5 hour train journey to and from Edinburgh to London. When else are you forced to sit, guilt-free, and get on with some reading? Makes me wonder if our probable future of train travel to Europe instead of planes won’t be so bad.

📖 Reading The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America by Bill Bryson - hilarious as per usual. The only writer that consistently makes me laugh out loud, he has such a knack of keeping the weird and wonderful relatable.

📺 Still thinking about The Traitors S2 - if you haven’t seen any spoilers and need something to chew through while the temperatures drop this weekend, look no further

📱 Reading this great piece by the master that is Austin Kleon on how to procrastinate - if something becomes boring or unproductive, move onto something else that keeps you productive until you’re ready to go back to the original thing

🎧 Listening to How to eat in 2024: 7 essential strategies by Tim Spector and the Zoe crew. Tim Spector goes against the grain when it comes to weight loss and healthy eating. He doesn’t believe in calorie counting, for example, and thinks that low-fat products are the devil. He’s also gone on record and said that a can of regular coke would be better than a can of fruit juice. I am doing my own research with an open mind and I think I will write about what I’ve found at some point. Also, this episode in particular is also a great lesson on how not to host a podcast - i.e. continually interrupt the female but not the man. Worth listening to all the same

📱 Not hating LinkedIn - love it or hate it, it’s good for finding (some) jobs and updates from companies you’re interested in. Don’t let it become another form of procrastination though, scrolling through linkedin is still scrolling through social media

⛷ Counting down the days until Val d’Isere at the start of March

🎧 Listening to Harry Potter and the Half-blood Price on audiobook - going to be bittersweet when finish the series, but the film series beckons

📻 Also listening, as ever, to The Chillest Show on Radio 1 Relax

💿 Enjoying this ridiculously good Boiler Room from Swim, a producer from Melbourne. Keeping an eye out for if/when he returns to the UK

Enjoyed any of these? Why not share this email with someone?

💬 And finally, a quote

Something interesting I’ve highlighted recently.

Ultra-Processed People - Chris van Tulleken

Thanks for reading!

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In the meantime, you can find me on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube, and have a look at what I’m reading on Goodreads.

📸 BONUS: Photo of the Week