PickTheBrain has an interesting post by Kent Thune about Is There Really Such a Thing as ‘Self Improvement’?. It starts like this:

Can the self be improved? What is the self, anyway? Does the currently popular “self-help movement” really help us or is it a paradoxical diversion from our true self?

The post at PickTheBrain brings up some questions and answers and then ends like this:

I submit to you that there is no such thing as self-improvement – only varying degrees of self-discovery: This process of discovering who you are consists primarily of eliminating who you are not and, thereby, uncovering your true self…

I do not like the term self improvement since I think it is about finding our true self and not about improving our self. In my blogs I use personal growth or personal development which I think say more about what it is.

I got my Jon Kabat-Zinn Mindfulness books and CD-box today and on a coupon in the CD-box they use the words personal discovery. That sounds really great to me, finding your true self is a journey and a discovery.