People avoid self-improvement because it puts their identity, beliefs, and behaviors on the spot and under a microscope and may and most probably would expose certain parts of their personality that they would rather not have exposed or revealed. Many people would instead not want to acknowledge anything that needs improvement and be in denial because if ignorance is bliss, then you don’t have to take any responsibility or make any changes. But Ignorance is not bliss – just because you don’t see or feel there is a problem does not mean it does not exist. It just means that you are unaware of it at this time, or maybe you don’t want to be aware of it. Perhaps it will go away or fix itself if you ignore it, but it probably won’t and that is wishful thinking.
Self-improvement involves clear, honest, and accurate thinking. This doesn’t appear to be easy since we are not used to taking ourselves voluntarily out of our comfort zone and analyzing our behavior and its causes. And we also tend to use confirmation bias to interpret information that supports or confirms our already established beliefs. We tend to want to cling to what is familiar. If we have conflicting information, we may tend to ignore or discount that conflicting information as not applicable or irrelevant to us even if it is relevant to us.
If you sincerely want to improve yourself, you have to proactively study and learn, and you have to develop a plan and map out what you want (not what someone else wants) to improve. If you’re going to accomplish anything, you have to set your goals or intentions. You will need to gather the resources and research, analyze, and follow through by taking the appropriate actions and implementing the solutions.
I don’t think that people so much avoid change and self-improvement; That is until they really need it or that it becomes very obvious or self-evident. Many don’t believe they can do it themselves. This is what we are taught – that we need outside help. If you do lack any sense of self-responsibility, then outside professional help or advice is recommended.
Self-improvement increases one’s knowledge, self-responsibility, intelligence, character, abilities, and overall physical and mental health through self-directed efforts.
You will have to do some inner work if you want to improve, and this is true for most change, but it will be well worth the time and effort. You have to get past the past, and beyond the self-delusion and self-deception if you seriously want to improve yourself.