Article on Vox by Allie Volpe, is entitled “How to be enough: Our obsession with self-improvement is making us miserable.”

Volpe posits that we live in a time when a cultural obsession with self-improvement leads to a hyperfixation on self. She identifies a few reasons why this obsession has led many to be miserable in a never-ending pursuit of “better.”

* Impulse/ inescapable psychological functions that drive us to strive for more

* Hedonic treadmill/adaptation (we get used to good things, they don’t stay as good)

* Comparison

When those three things combine, it creates a treacherous cycle that is a beast to escape. Thankfully, she follows up with several ways to find your way off the treadmill.

* Set goals towards personal growth and development, NOT accumulating things

* Meaning we should introspectively define values and what’s worth pursuing

* Mindset shift from feeling like we are living at a deficit and innately not enough

* Expressing gratitude and appreciation

So much here to agree with, so many Nnuts, and a few bolts.

N.othing N.ew U.nder T.he S.un:

* Inescapable psychological function: Ecclesiastes 3:11, God has made it so that we are always searching for more, but the more is Him. Not anything, person, or accomplishment.

* Cultural obsession with self-improvement: We’re wanting to be better, because things are not what God intended, AND for the Christian we are constantly partnering with the Holy Spirit on the path to perfection. What the culture doesn’t realize is where to look for perfection.

* Focus on personal development, not accumulation: God calls us to focus on what we can control, not what’s in His control. We drive ourselves crazy trying to be God instead of trusting God to do what He does while we do what we can.

* Thankfulness: I mean. . . that’s all throughout the Bible. We are to be grateful and thankful for everything God gives us, helping us be content without complacency.

* Miserable trying to be better: We’ll always be miserable seeking to better ourselves instead of trusting Christ to be our better and working with the Holy Spirit towards perfection.

Here are the main bolts that are missing, though.

* The article says that we can declare ourselves enough by setting our values, not comparing as much and being thankful. But how do we determine we are enough? It’s all arbitrary unless there is a standard giver that stands as THE “declarer.”

* There is an Ideal that we should all strive for, but that Ideal’s name is Jesus Christ. He gives us His perfection, making us enough once and for all. From there, we become what we already are, and that looks different for each of us.

Self-improvement leaves us miserable because we’re trying to do by ourselves what God does with us and looking for better in places it’s never been. We should be pursuing more, based on the reality that we are already enough.

Trust God. work hard.

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