Self Improvement Is Masturbation

article written on the 18th of November 2006 by Lee Nutter

The movie ‘Fight Club’ is quite possibly the best movie ever to come out of Hollywood. A bold statement, and because the movie is so frequently misunderstood and misinterpreted, probably a fairly unpopular statement too.

Fight Club is one of the few films I have watched more than once. Usually I can’t stand knowing what is going to happen next, but I have seen Fight Club probably near one hundred times, and every time I watch it, even though I can practically quote it word for word, I learn something new.

One quote that I had never fully understood was ‘Self Improvement is masturbation, self destruction is the answer’. Of course, it works well with Tyler’s vision for the future, and fits in with the rest of the movie, but everything else in the movie seemed ambiguous and applicable elsewhere in life if it was taken in the right way. This statement didn’t quite work like that until the other day when it finally made sense to me.

What Tyler is saying is that society has instilled some values in most people that are way off the mark. They aren’t doing anyone any good. You can use affirmations and other self help tools to help you progress, but basically you are building a sky scraper on a plot of land originally designed for a tin shack.

What of self destruction? It sounds very negative, and counter productive. It goes against what a lot of self help books recommend, but some times it might be the best thing to do. The way I see it, the further you have ‘progressed’ the harder this is going to be, so the sooner you take a look at yourself and consider your core values, and how they are helping you, holding you back, or will hinder your progress in the future, the easier it will be to back track, dig deep and really uproot yourself until you get it sorted.

This isn’t to say that everyone needs to strip themselves back to the bare essentials and work their way back up. But in some cases, it might be the best thing. Think of it like putting band aids and sticky tape on top of a massive open wound. If you ripped off all the self improvement hacks and started again you could really tackle the foundations of your self, and build a base that will last you the rest of your life.

I liken it to something Wayne Dyer says about people working in a job that a naive fourteen year old decided was a good idea. Obviously though, this affects your entire life on all levels, it isn’t just a choice of a career. It is the core values that you adopted or where indoctrinated into that are now dictating your every decision.

Don’t take this article, or the Fight Club quote the wrong way. Self improvement is incredibly important, it isn’t just playing with yourself, as this quote seemingly implies at first glance. Affirmations and other self help utilities are more than just toys, they are tools that help you be the person you want to be, to get where you want to go.

What I am saying is that your core values dictate your direction. If your core values are not in line with your goals, it doesn’t matter how close you seem to get, you are always on the wrong track. You might have to go back to the station to get on another train.

I hope I got the point across in this article, if I didn’t please let me know! You can get in touch with me via the feedback form on bmindful.