The Dark Side of Self-Improvement: 6 Traps Christians Need to Avoid

girl looking in mirror — Mlluna / Lightstock

September is National Self Improvement Month.

According to NationalToday.com, “Self Improvement Month reminds us that we all need to improve — and we all need to care for ourselves. It’s an opportunity for us to assess how satisfied we are with ourselves and to take the necessary steps to become who we aspire to be.”

Self Improvement Month may be a minor holiday, but it celebrates a booming industry, particularly among millennials.

One Forbes article, written years ago, went so far as to call millennials addicted to self improvement, citing the statistic, “94% of millennials reported making personal improvement commitments and said they’d be willing to spend nearly $300 a month on self-improvement.” And the industry hasn’t slowed down since then.

Personally, I’m a huge fan of self improvement.

My day job is running Equipping Godly Women, a website that’s unashamedly devoted to helping busy Jesus-loving women be the amazing Christian wives, moms, and women God created them to be through practical tips, tricks, and step-by-step tutorials full of Scripture.

Outside of work, the vast majority of my waking hours are devoted to “improvement” in some way — whether that’s improving myself (reading endless personal development books or exercising), improving my marriage (regular date nights and late-night conversations), helping my children improve (helping with their homework or teaching valuable life lessons), or improving my home (constantly cleaning and decluttering).

Unfortunately, the more time I spend in the world of personal development, the more I’ve become aware of its dangerous undercurrent.

Self improvement itself isn’t necessarily bad, but it does come with several very real risks that we as Christians need to be aware of.

1. Self Improvement Can Lead to Massive Discontentment

Whether you’re browsing your favorite social media sites, reading blogs, or scanning the aisle at the bookstore or library, there’s no shortage of self help gurus available, ready to help you “solve” problems you didn’t know you had.

Yes, it’s good to be self-aware. However, fall too far down the self improvement trap, and it isn’t long until it’s never “enough.”

When you intentionally surround yourself with people who can help you grow, you quickly find that there’s always someone better than you and always something to improve about yourself, your relationships, or your life.

This never-ending cycle of improvement can quickly and easily lead to massive discontentment if you aren’t careful.

After all, why be average when you could be awesome? Why settle for less when you could have, do, or be more?

2. Self Improvement Can Take Our Focus Off Others and Put it on Ourselves

Similarly, self improvement can cause us to be incredibly self-focused, thinking more about ourselves and how we can improve, rather than how we can improve the lives of others.

When taken too far, it can easily lead to comparison, jealousy, selfishness, and self-centeredness, values that directly contradict the life God wants us to lead.

While there’s nothing wrong with wanting to improve ourselves, we must be careful that we are seeking to become more Christ-like — not to make ourselves better than others according to an arbitrary or meaningless value scale we’ve created for ourselves.

3. Self Improvement Can Trade God’s Perfect Plan for Our Vain Desires

While there’s no reason we can’t use self improvement to boost our spiritual lives (this is my goal at Equipping Godly Women!), unfortunately, this isn’t how it’s typically used.

Rather than taking the time to prayerfully reflect on what sins God may be calling them to lay down or what new spiritual disciplines God may be encouraging them to adopt, many simply use self improvement as a way to change the things about themselves that they don’t like.

While Lent is one time of year that many Christians make more spiritual Lenten resolutions, many common New Year’s resolutions center around looks: exercising more, eating healthier, and losing weight.

4. Self Improvement Trades God’s Power for Our Power

John 6:63 tells us, “The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit and life.”

Similarly, Galatians 5:22-23a tells us, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”

While the personal development industry encourages us to work more, try hard, develop better habits, and exercise more willpower in the pursuit of our goals (since it’s all up to us), Jesus reminds us that his yoke is easy and his burden is light (Matthew 11:30).

As Christians, we improve through the power of the Holy Spirit working in and through us, not through taking the burden of improvement upon ourselves.

Yes, there are actions we need to do to partner with God, but ultimately He produces the fruit — not us.

5. The Self Improvement Industry is Full of Dangerous Theology

You don’t have to follow the most popular self improvement gurus for long until you find ideas or beliefs that directly contradict Christian theology. Beliefs such as:

You create your own destiny
You can do or be anything
You should follow your heart
You can manifest your dreams
The universe will guide you
No one’s opinion matters but yours

By contrast, the Bible tells us that we are sinners in need of a Savior (Romans 3:23), that God’s purposes and plans cannot be thwarted (Isaiah 14:27), and that our own hearts are deceitful above all things (Jeremiah 17:9).

While many self-help gurus proclaim, “Be whoever you want and don’t let anyone get in your way!” Christianity teaches us to lay down ourselves and humbly submit to the plans and purposes God has for us.

6. Self Improvement Can Easily Lead Us into Idolatry and Pride

When taken too far, self improvement makes promises it can’t keep.

Promises like: If you just work hard enough, you can break free from everything that holds you back and finally achieve perfection. If you optimize enough, you can escape the boundaries of time and humanity. If you just try harder, do more, be better, get the knowledge, discipline yourself…

Then you can transcend your human limitations to become boundless, limitless, perfect… You can become god.

None of us would admit we’re trying to be God. But is that what we’re really doing at the heart of this?

When we devote our lives to escaping our God-given limitations, being perfect in every way, and creating a future we design.

It’s a question worth pondering.